Boyle Travers Finniss was a military officer, surveyor and public official who was among the first settlers of what became the colony of South Australia. Arriving at Kangaroo Island in 1836, he helped to survey part of the island and grew crops before moving to the mainland in January 1837 where he and his family joined the main surveying party at Adelaide. Finniss was given charge to work on the western part of the town and acquired two acres on which he made his home. He was soon involved in local politics and became a vocal critic of the policies of the governor, Sir John Hindmarsh.
He was deeply involved in the development of South Australia and led a failed expedition into the Northern Territory in 1864. After his retirement, Finniss began to work on this book, The Constitutional History of South Australia, which was published at Adelaide in 1886, fifty years after the founding of the colony.