William Baffin was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 navigator

Navigator

A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation. The navigator's primary responsibility is to be aware of ship or aircraft position at all times. Responsibilities include planning the journey, advising the Captain or aircraft Commander of estimated timing to...

 and explorer. Nothing is known of his early life, but it is conjectured that he was born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 of humble origin, and gradually raised himself by his diligence and perseverance. (Britannica 11th Edition gives a year of birth as 1584, but this is simply a guess, without any documentary basis.)

There is no known portrait of Baffin: shown is a generic "Navigator with Globe", dated 1624 and attributed to Dutch artist Hendrik van der Borcht.
William Baffin explored the Arctic circle

Arctic Circle

The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....

, the earliest mention of his name occurs in 1612, in connection with Denmark's King Christian IV's Expeditions to Greenland

Christian IV's Expeditions to Greenland

Christian IV's Expeditions was a series of expeditions in the years 1605-1607 to Greenland and Arctic waterways sent by King Christian IV of Denmark in order to locate the lost Eastern Norse Settlement and assert Danish sovereignty over Greenland....

  under the command of Captain James Hall

James Hall (explorer)

James Hall was an English explorer. In Denmark, he was known as Jacob Hald. He piloted three of King Christian IV's Expeditions to Greenland under John Cunningham , Godske Lindenov , and Carsten Richardson . In his first voyage he charted the west coast of Greenland as far north as 68° 35' N...

, whom he accompanied as chief pilot.