People Australia

Caroline Laycock (c.1764-1830) was found guilty on 30 March 1785 at the Middlesex Guildhall, of petty larceny. Sentenced to seven years transportation, she arrived in Sydney in 1788 aboard the Prince of Wales as part of the First Fleet.

Laycock had a child with Robert Hosburn, a seaman aboard the Prince of Wales, in 1788. Hosburn returned to England on the ship. On 25 July 1789 she was sentenced to 50 lashes for helping William Boggis steal a shirt from John Morris.

Laycock then had a daughter with Robert Bruce, who, it is thought, returned to England in 1791 following the expiration of his sentence. She then had five children with Mark Turner before his death in 1802. In 1803 she had a daughter with William Smith.

On 25 August 1804 Laycock was accused, with Edward Clarke, of involvement in stealing clothing from a house in Pitt's Row, Sydney. She was sentenced to government labour at Parramatta. The magistrates 'in consideration of the woman's family, humanely ordered her to be disposed of with every lenity'.

In 1806 Laycock was on record as living with William Shepherd. On 7 May 1810 she married Henry Heatley who was about 20 years her junior. They seem to have separated by 1814. She was buried (as Caroline Hegly) on 17 March 1830. The burial was registered at St James's Church, Sydney.

*information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), pp 215-16