Alexander Heriot Mackonochie (11 August 1825 – 15 December 1887) was a Church of England mission priest known as "the martyr of St Alban's" on account of his prosecution and forced resignation for ritualist practices. Early life Mackonochie was born at Fareham, Hampshire, the third son of George Mackonochie (1775/6–1827), a retired colonel in the service of the East India Company, and his wife, Isabella Alison. Through his mother he had a traditional Low Church upbringing and his family were opponents of the early Catholic Revival. Mackonochie was educated at private schools in Bath and Exeter. Early on he felt a call to the Ministry of the Church and gained the nickname "the boy-bishop" among his contemporaries. He attended lectures at Edinburgh University before matriculating at Wadham College, Oxford in 1844. He graduated BA in 1848 and MA in 1851. Oxford was the centre of the two-decades-old Oxford Movement, the leading force in English Anglo-Catholicism. There are conflicting accounts of his theological opinions while at Oxford. Some describe Mackonochie as having "pronounced Low Church views", but he heard Pusey preach and was on personal terms with many of the other leading Anglo-Catholics of the day, especially Charles Marriott. However, we can be sure that during his time at the university he came into contact with the vanguard of the Oxford Movement, though he may not have shared its views at this early stage in his life. Ordination and early parish ministry Mackonochie was ordained in Lent 1849 and became a curate at Westbury, Wiltshire. In 1852, he became a curate of W. J. Butler at Wantage, Berkshire. Butler was a Tractarian and at Wantage Mackonochie followed a typical Anglo-Catholic pattern of ministry. Mackonochie taught in the Church schools and had special responsibility for the nearby district of Charlton, preaching forcefully. London Docks and Holborn In 1858, he moved to become a curate at St George's-in-the-East, London. There he worked with Charles Fuge Lowder as a mission priest in the slum areas of London Docks. At this time St George's-in-the-East was a focus for anti-Ritualist rioting which including services being interrupted and stones being thrown at the mission's priests. In 1862, Mackonochie became perpetual curate at St Alban the Martyr, Holborn. In a letter to the patron, J. G. Hubbard, he explained his theological opinions, which included endorsing the (for that time) radically Catholic eucharistic doctrine of G. A. Denison. Mackonochie