Honora Byrnes/Burns and James Quinlan
Birth: 25 Nov 1859, Hectorville, South Australia
Death: 6 Sep 1922, Plympton, South Australia
Father: John Burns
Mother: Mary Callaghan
Death: 6 Sep 1922, Plympton, South Australia
Father: John Burns
Mother: Mary Callaghan
Spouse: James Austuin Quinlan
Birth: 1 Apr 1859, Knockvela, Oola, Limerick
Death: 29 Sep 1920, Underdale, South Australia
Father: John Quinlan
Mother: Nora Ryan
Marriage: 29 Jul 1880, Norwood, South Australia
Children: John Thomas (1880–1897)
James John (1883–1952)
Edward Arthur (1884–1953)
Michael (1886–1951)
William Alfred or Albert (1888–1943)
Thomas (1890–1967)
Joseph (1893–1949)
Patrick James (1895–1905)
Nora May (1901–1997)
Named after her maternal grandmother, Honora May Burns was the second daughter of John Burns and Mary Callaghan, born on November 25, 1859, in Hectorville. Nora was baptized in Adelaide by Fr. John Smyth on November 27, 1859, and her godparents were Mary's brother Michael and a woman named Ellen Guppy. Though the second child, she was essentially the oldest as her brother Edmund died before she was born.
During Nora’s youth, Hectorville was a small, struggling hamlet of primarily Irish Catholic immigrant families, mostly farmers and market gardeners like her father. The village is five miles northeast of Adelaide. There were only 20 families included on the Hectorville rate abatement list in 1857, just before John and Mary Burns married and bought property there. That list was down to seven in 1863, including John Burns and John Callaghan. Nora grew up in a two-room, “rammed earth” house (similar to an adobe) on Hectorville Road and South Street. Basic amenities would have been limited. There was no electricity, and water would have been sourced from rainwater tanks or hauled to the house in buckets. His grandfather, aunts, and uncles lived less than a block away.
Michael would have grown up playing in the streets and fields around the town and doing manual labor in this father’s 12 acres of fields. Children and adults alike would have been involved in farm work, with children often helping out with chores from a young age. Beside weeding, watering, and helping to harvest the fields, Michael would have been responsible for bringing water from the local standpipe from a local standpipe across the Glynne Road to the house and/or field. Water was not piped into the town until 1897. A drought in the mid 1860s would have made the situation particularly difficult.
Birth: 1 Apr 1859, Knockvela, Oola, Limerick
Death: 29 Sep 1920, Underdale, South Australia
Father: John Quinlan
Mother: Nora Ryan
Marriage: 29 Jul 1880, Norwood, South Australia
Children: John Thomas (1880–1897)
James John (1883–1952)
Edward Arthur (1884–1953)
Michael (1886–1951)
William Alfred or Albert (1888–1943)
Thomas (1890–1967)
Joseph (1893–1949)
Patrick James (1895–1905)
Nora May (1901–1997)
Named after her maternal grandmother, Honora May Burns was the second daughter of John Burns and Mary Callaghan, born on November 25, 1859, in Hectorville. Nora was baptized in Adelaide by Fr. John Smyth on November 27, 1859, and her godparents were Mary's brother Michael and a woman named Ellen Guppy. Though the second child, she was essentially the oldest as her brother Edmund died before she was born.
During Nora’s youth, Hectorville was a small, struggling hamlet of primarily Irish Catholic immigrant families, mostly farmers and market gardeners like her father. The village is five miles northeast of Adelaide. There were only 20 families included on the Hectorville rate abatement list in 1857, just before John and Mary Burns married and bought property there. That list was down to seven in 1863, including John Burns and John Callaghan. Nora grew up in a two-room, “rammed earth” house (similar to an adobe) on Hectorville Road and South Street. Basic amenities would have been limited. There was no electricity, and water would have been sourced from rainwater tanks or hauled to the house in buckets. His grandfather, aunts, and uncles lived less than a block away.
Michael would have grown up playing in the streets and fields around the town and doing manual labor in this father’s 12 acres of fields. Children and adults alike would have been involved in farm work, with children often helping out with chores from a young age. Beside weeding, watering, and helping to harvest the fields, Michael would have been responsible for bringing water from the local standpipe from a local standpipe across the Glynne Road to the house and/or field. Water was not piped into the town until 1897. A drought in the mid 1860s would have made the situation particularly difficult.
The population bounced back up to 31 families in 1873, possibly in part due to the opening of the (Roman Catholic) Church of the Annunciation in 1863, the first Catholic church in the eastern suburbs of Adelaide. The church building was used as a schoolhouse for St Joseph’s School in Hectorville during the week. The school was conducted by “an efficient master” named Miss McMahon until 1870 she left to teach in Norwood and the Sisters of St Joseph were appointed to teach at this school. Saint Mary McKillop established the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart in 1963 in response to Pope Pius IX’ Syllabus of Errors which “condemned a system of education which did not embrace the Catholic faith.” Saint Mary McKillop is known to have visited the school on a number of occasions. She also designed the curriculum, which included reading, writing, and arithmetic for all, and sewing and darning for girls and bookkeeping for boys. Later classes included Ancient History, Latin, Greek, and Irish history.
Overcrowding and truancy were common, especially during harvest season when boys were kept at home to help at the market garden or farm, and girls were expected to help with making preserves, butter, and cheese, as well as with raising the younger children. A letter from Sr. Mary Joseph Dwyer to Saint Mary McKillop in 1870 stated:
Miss McMahon has left Hectorville and is teaching in Norwood. We have a large school now. There are seventy children on the roll, but only fifty are in regular attendance.
We are living near the Church in a house with two large rooms. The rent is £3 per week. We get very little for the school as yet—the people about here are so very poor. Fr. Tappeiner is going to get together a School Board in order to collect some money for us.
In 1868, “Honora Byrne” came in first in Second Class in the school exams. Whether this is our Nora or not is up for debate.
The Church and School were at the heart of the community, serving as a place of worship and of social interaction. Social life revolved around community gatherings such as church services, local fairs tied to the Church and agricultural calendars, and agricultural shows. Entertainment was largely homegrown, including activities such as storytelling, music, and games.
Somewhere along the way, Nora met Jim Quinlan.
James Austuin Quinlan was born to John Quinlan and Honora Ryan in 1859 in Knockvela, Oola, County Limerick. He was baptized on April 3, 1859 and his sponsors were William and Johanna Quinlan (presumably his aunt and uncle). His father was a farmer who, according to Griffith’s Valuation (1853), rented 50 acres of land from Robert Jones in Portane, near Oola.
Oola is a village on the main road (now the N24) between Limerick City and Tipperary, near the Tipperary border. According to Lewis’ Topological Map of Ireland (1837),
Miss McMahon has left Hectorville and is teaching in Norwood. We have a large school now. There are seventy children on the roll, but only fifty are in regular attendance.
We are living near the Church in a house with two large rooms. The rent is £3 per week. We get very little for the school as yet—the people about here are so very poor. Fr. Tappeiner is going to get together a School Board in order to collect some money for us.
In 1868, “Honora Byrne” came in first in Second Class in the school exams. Whether this is our Nora or not is up for debate.
The Church and School were at the heart of the community, serving as a place of worship and of social interaction. Social life revolved around community gatherings such as church services, local fairs tied to the Church and agricultural calendars, and agricultural shows. Entertainment was largely homegrown, including activities such as storytelling, music, and games.
Somewhere along the way, Nora met Jim Quinlan.
James Austuin Quinlan was born to John Quinlan and Honora Ryan in 1859 in Knockvela, Oola, County Limerick. He was baptized on April 3, 1859 and his sponsors were William and Johanna Quinlan (presumably his aunt and uncle). His father was a farmer who, according to Griffith’s Valuation (1853), rented 50 acres of land from Robert Jones in Portane, near Oola.
Oola is a village on the main road (now the N24) between Limerick City and Tipperary, near the Tipperary border. According to Lewis’ Topological Map of Ireland (1837),
OOLLA, or ULLOE, a parish, in the barony of COONAGH, county of LIMERICK, and province of MUNSTER, 7 miles (N. W.) from Tipperary, on the new line of road to Limerick; containing 2735 inhabitants, of which number, 192 are in the village. James, Earl of Kildare, Deputy Governor of Ireland, in 1497, took Ballyneety Castle, and destroyed the fortress. In 1691, General Sarsfield surprised this castle in the night, blew it up, and destroyed all the cannon destined for the siege of Limerick, together with the ammunition, stores, &c., which had been brought hither, at an enormous expense, by Wm. III, who afterwards partially repaired the castle. The parish is situated on the borders of the counties of Tipperary and Limerick: the land is tolerably good, and is chiefly meadow and pasture, about a fifth only being under tillage. The substratum is limestone of very superior quality, though not in much use for manure. The village consists of 35 houses, mostly small, but well built; it has much improved since the formation of the new road: there is a constabulary police station. Newtown-Ellard is the ancient seat of the Lloyd family, and Castle Lloyd is the handsome residence of T. Lloyd, Esq. The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Emly, and in the patronage of the Crown, during the legal incapacity of the Earl of Kenmare; the rectory is impropriate in Edw. Deane Freeman, Esq. There are two excellent glebes, comprising together 357 acres. The parishioners attend the church of Cullen, the curate of which performs the occasional duties of the parish: divine service is also performed in Castle Lloyd, and in the spacious parochial school-house, which is principally supported by the Lloyd family and others, and in which are about 50 children. Near it stands the R. C. chapel, a large old edifice. The remains of Ballyneety castle present a stately heap of ruins, with here and there a wall nearly entire. The ruins of the church, and of Oolla castle, stand close to the R. C. chapel. In 1825, some large and perfect antlers of the elk were discovered; and, in 1828, a brazen trumpet, and spear and arrow heads of bronze were found, which are now in the museum of Trinity College, Dublin.
James’ upbringing in Oola was probably very similar to that of Nora’s Callaghan uncles in Ireland, sans the eviction and Famine. There were a few Quinlans but tons of Ryans in the area, so his mother’s family would have been very present and important in his life. James would have had a basic education in the three Rs and an extensive education in agriculture.
While the decimation of the Famine was no longer imminent, times were still difficult and the crops failed every so often in the 1860s and 1870s, making survival always precarious. Times were tough enough that James was sent to Australia to earn his living. Under the Assisted Passage Act, he boarded the clipper ship City of Adelaide in May of 1874 as a potential servant and spent the next three months at sea, arriving in Adelaide on August 23, 1874. There were no other Quinlans or Ryans aboard. He was only 15 years old.
It is unknown how or when James and Nora met, but they were married at St. Ignatius Church in Norwood, South Australia, on July 29, 1880. He was 21. She was 20 years old and three months pregnant. It is likely that they moved in with her parents in Hectorville. Their first child, John Thomas Quinlan, was born on December 9, 1880, in Hectorville. He was the firstborn great-grandchild of John Callaghan and Nora Carroll—the beginning of the next generation. Nora and James would have seven more sons and a daughter.
Four years after they married, James was a farm laborer living in Two Wells, a hamlet 25 miles north of downtown Adelaide. The eponymous two wells were natural and permanent waterholes, that, in the 1880s, were deepened and strengthened to facilitate regular use by travelling stock. That year, James was also admitted to Adelaide Hospital with what was then referred to as “granular lids.” Formally known as blepharitis, granulated eyelids is still a common condition that causes inflammation in the eyelids. There are two types: anterior and posterior. Anterior blepharitis affects the outer front part of the eyelid, where the lashes are attached. Staphylococcus bacteria or scalp dandruff usually causes it. Posterior blepharitis affects the oil glands of the inner eyelid. Which version James had is unknown, but he seemed to have fully recovered.
By 1883, the Quinlan family had moved to Payneham, where their second child, James John, was born. The Kaurna people had been the traditional owners of the land there, living around the three creeks which traverse the City and gathering for ceremony and cultural activities. Known as the Garden City, Payneham was named by Samuel Payne (c. 1803–1847) after himself. He, his wife Ann (née Maslen), and two children had arrived in April 1838. The town is just over a mile from Hectorville. James would work as a farm laborer there until 1893. Payneham was also where Nora’s uncle Michael Callaghan had found his bride Johanna McCarthy in 1859. On September 17, 1886, the Quinlans were able to buy two lots on Rosella and George Streets.
While the decimation of the Famine was no longer imminent, times were still difficult and the crops failed every so often in the 1860s and 1870s, making survival always precarious. Times were tough enough that James was sent to Australia to earn his living. Under the Assisted Passage Act, he boarded the clipper ship City of Adelaide in May of 1874 as a potential servant and spent the next three months at sea, arriving in Adelaide on August 23, 1874. There were no other Quinlans or Ryans aboard. He was only 15 years old.
It is unknown how or when James and Nora met, but they were married at St. Ignatius Church in Norwood, South Australia, on July 29, 1880. He was 21. She was 20 years old and three months pregnant. It is likely that they moved in with her parents in Hectorville. Their first child, John Thomas Quinlan, was born on December 9, 1880, in Hectorville. He was the firstborn great-grandchild of John Callaghan and Nora Carroll—the beginning of the next generation. Nora and James would have seven more sons and a daughter.
Four years after they married, James was a farm laborer living in Two Wells, a hamlet 25 miles north of downtown Adelaide. The eponymous two wells were natural and permanent waterholes, that, in the 1880s, were deepened and strengthened to facilitate regular use by travelling stock. That year, James was also admitted to Adelaide Hospital with what was then referred to as “granular lids.” Formally known as blepharitis, granulated eyelids is still a common condition that causes inflammation in the eyelids. There are two types: anterior and posterior. Anterior blepharitis affects the outer front part of the eyelid, where the lashes are attached. Staphylococcus bacteria or scalp dandruff usually causes it. Posterior blepharitis affects the oil glands of the inner eyelid. Which version James had is unknown, but he seemed to have fully recovered.
By 1883, the Quinlan family had moved to Payneham, where their second child, James John, was born. The Kaurna people had been the traditional owners of the land there, living around the three creeks which traverse the City and gathering for ceremony and cultural activities. Known as the Garden City, Payneham was named by Samuel Payne (c. 1803–1847) after himself. He, his wife Ann (née Maslen), and two children had arrived in April 1838. The town is just over a mile from Hectorville. James would work as a farm laborer there until 1893. Payneham was also where Nora’s uncle Michael Callaghan had found his bride Johanna McCarthy in 1859. On September 17, 1886, the Quinlans were able to buy two lots on Rosella and George Streets.
After six years, the Quinlans sold their land in Payneham and, on October 18, 1892, they bought one acre of Modbury land (lot 841) with John Callaghan, Jr. It is unclear whether they moved to Modbury, because, though James was listed as a (market) gardener in Modbury from 1893 to 1905, their next three children were born in Payneham. Only their youngest, Nora Mary, was born in Modbury.
The village of Modbury was founded in 1857 as a direct result of the building of the official North Eastern Road. The founder of the township was Robert Symons Kelly who built a farmhouse on Section 841 in 1842. The first building was Ludwig Koop's smithy which was established by a wheelwright who moved from Hope Valley in 1857. This smithy operated until 1939. Modbury's second building was its hotel, which was constructed in 1858 and licensed in September of that year. Kelly was a builder, and probably built the two-story hotel himself. A village shop was also opened in 1858, probably also constructed by Kelly. Subsequent buildings included a shop and cottage (1859) and a Wesleyan Chapel which was also used as a school (1863). In 1865, Kelly donated land for a recreation ground (now the Civic Park). A large public school with attached school-house was erected in 1881, and an institute in 1905-06.
The village of Modbury was founded in 1857 as a direct result of the building of the official North Eastern Road. The founder of the township was Robert Symons Kelly who built a farmhouse on Section 841 in 1842. The first building was Ludwig Koop's smithy which was established by a wheelwright who moved from Hope Valley in 1857. This smithy operated until 1939. Modbury's second building was its hotel, which was constructed in 1858 and licensed in September of that year. Kelly was a builder, and probably built the two-story hotel himself. A village shop was also opened in 1858, probably also constructed by Kelly. Subsequent buildings included a shop and cottage (1859) and a Wesleyan Chapel which was also used as a school (1863). In 1865, Kelly donated land for a recreation ground (now the Civic Park). A large public school with attached school-house was erected in 1881, and an institute in 1905-06.
In 1894, John Callaghan sold his part of lot 841 so he could retire and move to Parkside. The Quinlans kept their share and bought 20 additional acres of section 1561 on Main North Eastern Road (A16) and Grand Junction Road (A10). They would live and work there for the next eleven years.
Tragedy struck the Quinlan family in October of 1897, with the death of their eldest child, seventeen-year-old John Thomas. The cause is unknown.
Tragedy struck the Quinlan family in October of 1897, with the death of their eldest child, seventeen-year-old John Thomas. The cause is unknown.
In the fall of 1900, 41-year-old Nora became pregnant for the ninth time. It must have been quite a surprise, since it had been six years since her last pregnancy. On June 22, 1901, she gave birth to her first and only daughter, whom she named Nora May. Unfortunately, Nora’s mother did not live to meet Little Nora, having died one month earlier.
In 1905, tragedy struck again with the death of ten-year-old Patrick. The cause is unknown. The event may have instigated a location change or might have happened after relocation had been decided upon. The Quinlans had already sold off section 1561 the year before to a Robert Moncrieff. Now they moved to Underdale, a suburb west of Adelaide. Directories between 1906 and 1920 list James as a “dealer and gardener.” “Dealer” would have referred to a man whose occupation involved buying and selling goods, such as a general merchant, trader, or someone dealing in specific commodities (e.g., food, livestock, hardware, or other retail goods). The specific nature in what James dealt would have varied depending on the market and demand at the time.
On March 17, 1914, their son Thomas married Winifred Goddard. On February 20, 1915, they delivered to Nora and James a first grandchild, a son they named John James. There would be 11 grandchildren in total.
Socially, the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 led to a rise in patriotism throughout Australia and the rest of the British Empire. On July 17, 1915, the Quinlans’ son Edward enlisted in the 3rd Australian Light Horse at Kestwick. After four months training, he was transported to Telel Kabir, Egypt, to await further assignment. It must have been a terrifying time for his parents who heard daily of the losses at Gallipoli in Turkey. But by January, Edward had been transferred to an artillery division based on a letter of recommendation from his commanding officer. He would serve the next three years in France as a bombardier and depot driver, far from the front lines. In late May of 1919, the Advertiser, Adelaide posted this announcement:
Mr. and Mrs. James Quinlan, of Underdale, have been notified by the military that their son Bombardier E. A. QUINLAN, is returning to Australia per transport Suffolk, and will arrive in Melbourne on or about 30th May, after 3 years active service.
James Quinlan died at their home in Underdale on September 29, 1920. He was 61 years old, though his headstone says 66. Nora Burns died just under two years later at Plympton on September 6, 1922. She was 62, though her age was also wrong on her tombstone.
In 1905, tragedy struck again with the death of ten-year-old Patrick. The cause is unknown. The event may have instigated a location change or might have happened after relocation had been decided upon. The Quinlans had already sold off section 1561 the year before to a Robert Moncrieff. Now they moved to Underdale, a suburb west of Adelaide. Directories between 1906 and 1920 list James as a “dealer and gardener.” “Dealer” would have referred to a man whose occupation involved buying and selling goods, such as a general merchant, trader, or someone dealing in specific commodities (e.g., food, livestock, hardware, or other retail goods). The specific nature in what James dealt would have varied depending on the market and demand at the time.
On March 17, 1914, their son Thomas married Winifred Goddard. On February 20, 1915, they delivered to Nora and James a first grandchild, a son they named John James. There would be 11 grandchildren in total.
Socially, the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 led to a rise in patriotism throughout Australia and the rest of the British Empire. On July 17, 1915, the Quinlans’ son Edward enlisted in the 3rd Australian Light Horse at Kestwick. After four months training, he was transported to Telel Kabir, Egypt, to await further assignment. It must have been a terrifying time for his parents who heard daily of the losses at Gallipoli in Turkey. But by January, Edward had been transferred to an artillery division based on a letter of recommendation from his commanding officer. He would serve the next three years in France as a bombardier and depot driver, far from the front lines. In late May of 1919, the Advertiser, Adelaide posted this announcement:
Mr. and Mrs. James Quinlan, of Underdale, have been notified by the military that their son Bombardier E. A. QUINLAN, is returning to Australia per transport Suffolk, and will arrive in Melbourne on or about 30th May, after 3 years active service.
James Quinlan died at their home in Underdale on September 29, 1920. He was 61 years old, though his headstone says 66. Nora Burns died just under two years later at Plympton on September 6, 1922. She was 62, though her age was also wrong on her tombstone.
Nora Burns Quinlan was the second grandchild of John and Nora Callaghan. She led a long and productive live for the time and raised nine children who produced eleven grandchildren. Many general facts of her life are known, but no personal stories survive. We can only hope it was a life full of love.