Maconochie was born on 2 March 1777 in "Society" a district in south Edinburgh,
Midlothian (now known as the Pleasance), the eldest son of Elizabeth Welwood of Garvock and
Allan Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank. He was educated at the
Royal High School, Edinburgh, and at the
University of Edinburgh. He was admitted as an
advocate in 1799, and in 1800 admitted to the
Highland Society. He served as
Sheriff of Haddington from 1810 and
Solicitor General for Scotland from 1813, and as
Lord Advocate from 1816 to 1819. He was Member of Parliament for
Yarmouth,
Isle of Wight, England, from 1817–1818, and for the
Kilrenny district of
Anstruther Burghs from 1818 to 1819. He made his Parliamentary debut during a period of considerable unrest in both Scotland and England in 1817, choosing to mark it by announcing the existence of a seditious conspiracy of weavers in the suburbs of Glasgow. The ensuing prosecutions were spectacularly unsuccessful, however, and caused considerable embarrassment, both to the government and to Maconochie himself, who, as Lord Advocate, was directly responsible. In 1817 he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir
William Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet,
Thomas Allan,
Sir David Brewster and Sir
Henry Jardine. He served as a Councillor of the Society during 1822-5 (Literary section) and 1835–7. In the 1830s, his city address is listed as 13 Royal Circus
Edinburgh's New Town. His rural estate
Meadowbank from which he took the name of his title was located in
West Lothian. Meadowbank House passed to him from his father and circa 1835, he paid for the Scottish architect
William Henry Playfair to redesign the house in
Scottish baronial style. In part because of his rather indifferent record, especially after further embarrassment in the
Court of Session in 1819, he was appointed a
lord of session and justiciary as
Lord Meadowbank 1819, and resigned in 1843. With the same title as his father, he was subject of one of
Scots law's better puns. When he quizzed one advocate as to the difference between 'likewise and also', he received the reply that just as his father had been Lord Meadowbank, so was he, 'also but not likewise'. He assumed the additional surname of
Welwood on succeeding to his cousin's
estates in 1854. Maconochie-Welwood died on 30 November 1861 at Meadowbank House (now named
Kirknewton House),
Kirknewton, West Lothian, and was interred at a private burial ground at Meadowbank House. == Artistic Patronage ==