Parramatta, NSW; Gawler, SA

Fr T.J. Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, Vol. 2: Biographies of Priests on the Australian Scene up to 1900, 1980, pp 97-98:

Coyle, Francis, Irish
Stormy Soul in Early Adelaide Mission
In his book Hierarchy and Democracy 1788-1870, The Formation of Australia, T.L. Sutton identifies Fr. Francis Coyle of Adelaide with Dr. John Coyle of Perth. There is a resemblance. The former involved himself in activities and controversy with which Bishop Francis Murphy disagreed and was accordingly suspended; the latter clashed with Dr. J.B. Polding who pronounced an excommunication against him in incidents surrounding the dismissal of Bishop John Brady. Both are amongst the stormiest of characters on the clerical scene in the last century. Information about Francis has been supplied from the Adelaide Church Archives by Sr. M. Attracta OP; while that concerning Dr. John can be found in the recently published History of the Catholic Church in Western Australia, 1829-1979, by Fr. D.F. Bourke CM. Their signatures are dissimilar, Francis is always Francis in the Adelaide records, and John is John in the many letters he wrote and now preserved in the Perth Cathedral Archives. John was in the company of Brady as from October 1850 when they met in Rome. He replaced another shady character, Dominic Urquhardt OC, as Vicar General. In the 1849-51 period Francis was on the San Francisco Mission, having returned to the USA in 1849 or 1850. (Bishop Murphy's Diary) & (Letter of Oakland Public Librarian to Adelaide Church Archives, 13.3.1967). Francis Coyle was described by Bishop Murphy as an "old missionary". (Letter of Murphy to Ryan V.G. 29.9.1846). John, who died according to his death certificate at the age of 36, could scarcely be called "old". Hence the writer felt justifiably annoyed when in 1977 he pointed out the error to the author of Hierarchy and Democracy in person, and was casually brushed aside.

Bishop Murphy's Diary adds to the confusion. An entry of 2.1.1849 states: "On this day Fr. F. Coyle was suspended". Entry of 15.2.1849 "James Coyle left Adelaide on this date". (Probably Murphy meant to write Francis). A further entry: "James Coyle died on 8.1.1850)). (This is quite correct. The writer has a death certificate of James, a youth of 19 who died of brain fever and was buried by Fr. John Fallon). Another entry: "Coyle returned on 12 Jan. 1850". (Possibly a reference to Fr. Francis) and probably there was a relationship between the two Coyles in the Murphy Diary entries. Even so one feels Murphy makes the Coyles just as confusing as the author of Hierarchy and Democracy. Murphy's letter from London to Ryan, 29.9.1846, referred to above, tells the history of Francis: "I have been haranguing a good many persons on the subject of immigration ... I have one priest and have ordered him to go to Sydney to assist Father James Hanly on the Moreton Bay mission until I return. He has been on the American mission and has been highly recommended by the Lord Abbot of Melleray Abbey. Being an old missionary I fear he might not be as obedient and submissive as he ought to be during absence from the Colony and might therefore give you trouble which I wish you to be spared. For this reason I send him to Sydney for a time". There is no record of Coyle being in Brisbane. Instead he arrived in Sydney on the 'Sea Nymph', 30.3.1847, and was deputed to assist Fr. Michael McGrath at Parramatta. On Murphy's return to Adelaide, Coyle set sail for his adopted mission, arriving on 18.2.1848. Dr. Polding had loaned the passage money of £60. The shoes were in poor repair, so Murphy paid out 15/- for same and £4 cash in advance and so the fun begins ...

The Murphy Diary reveals that the newcomer spent short periods in Glenelg and Port Adelaide and was then despatched to Gawler. The assignment was to build a new presbytery, but Francis was intent on rambling often to the city and giving lectures on phrenology and on a wide range of controversial subjects. Fr. Thomas Caldwell OSB, writing from Redditch, Eng., on 24.1.1870 states: Coyle was "a very clever man and often gave sermons and lectures that you will find in the Adelaide 'Observer'. He gave the Bishop a great deal of trouble ..." Fame spread across the border into Western Victoria. Hence the 'Portland Guardian' of 3.5.1848 records this ultimatum to Gawler parishioners:
1. - You will be attended the first Sunday of each month from June until further notice.
2. - You must not be expecting me to be running after each and everyone of you.
3. - I will have no faction spirit except in Christian charity. I care for none of you. I come among you for your soul's sake: to say Mass, to administer the sacraments. If you want more of me, you are not in the right spirit.
4. - You will find me punctual in all appointments. I expect you to be the same. I will neither trifle nor be trifled with.
5. - It is easier for all to study one man's disposition than for one to study the disposition of every individual. Let us have no nonsense and all will be well. If you begin at cross purposes with me it will be worse for yourselves ... (Signed) F. Coyle, Gawler Town, May 1848.

As the late Fr. R.A. Morrison comments, when reproducing this strange outburst in the Manly Annual of 1944, it contains a certain modicum of sweet reasonableness, but would hardly appeal to the kindly and practical Shepherd, Dr. Francis Murphy. Hence the tension resulting in an eventual suspension in January 1849, as recorded above. And hence the enforced departure of the phrenologist and controversialist to pastures old in the USA.

The Oaklands Public Librarian suggests that Francis Coyle after leaving San Francisco Diocese may have returned to Australia. But of that we know nothing, at least at the time when this thumbnail was written. The evidence seems to show that neither in San Francisco nor in Adelaide did the author of the famous ultimatum rest his restless bones.
(Footprints, Vol. 3, No. 1)
Ref.: Adelaide Church Archives, per Sr. M. Attracta OP, as quoted above.