His father, Joseph Alexander Condell (born Musselburgh, Scotland, 1749), was a brewer in Leith and his mother was Martha (née French).

Condell's parents married in a Roman Catholic ceremony in Lincoln's Inn, London in 1783 before traveling to Madeira (Martha's birthplace), where they operated a wine and spirits business.

He left New Brunswick in 1821, planning to travel to New South Wales to settle, but first he returned to Edinburgh where he married Marion Vallange on 28 May 1822.

[2] He left Scotland for Van Diemen's Land on 24 June 1822 on board the "Skelton" and arrived in Hobart on 24 December 1822.

On 9 December 1842 at the Royal Hotel, Collins Street Condell was elected as Melbourne's first Mayor, as well as the Gipps Ward Alderman.