Alexander Maconochie was born in 1787 in Edinburgh. He arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1836 as private secretary to Sir John Franklin. In 1838 he wrote a Report on the State of Prison Discipline in Van Diemen's Land at the request of the English Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline which was used by the Molesworth Committee on Transportation. He was superintendent of the penal settlement at Norfolk Island from 1840 - 1844 after which he returned to London. He was also a noted geographer and served in the British Navy. He died in 1860.