John Morgan (1792?-1866) was born near Portsmouth, England. He was a soldier who fought in Spain, America and Canada. In 1824 he wrote a memoir about his Canadian war years , The Emigrant’s note book and guide. In 1828 he was appointed store-keeper for a settlement at Swan River in Western Australia. He became a magistrate and justice of the peace before moving to Hobart to work first as a farmer, then as a journalist. He founded the Hobart Town Advertiser (1839), worked briefly on the Tasmanian, then began the Tasmanian Weekly Dispatch (1839-41).
He is best known for The Life and Adventures of William Buckley, which he wrote in 1852, in collaboration with its subject, a white man who had spent more than 30 years living with aborigines in Victoria.
He wrote an early account of Perth in a piece called ‘Swan River’ for Hobart’s Courier on 11 November 1858.