People Australia

Charles McLaughlin was found guilty on 21 July 1785 at Durham, England, of picking a man's pocket and stealing a purse with a half guinea gold coin. Sentenced to 7 years transportation he was sent to the Ceres hulk in mid 1786 and arrived in Sydney in January 1788 aboard the Alexander as part of the First Fleet.

As McClellan he was chosen as one of the 9 male convicts to go to Norfolk Island and left on 14 February 1788 on the Supply. As MacLelland he earned 3 dozen lashes for the theft of rum from the surgeon's tent on 20 April and was given 3 dozen more on 10 May for seditious and threatening language and another 3 dozen on 7 August for stealing eggs.

As McCaring he was sent, with Henry Barnett and William Dring, to Nepean Island in irons for six weeks — with only two weeks ration — on 15 May 1791 for stealing potatoes from gardens. The men were brought back 4 weeks later on 12 June.

McLaughlin had left the colony by 1793.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 232