Many years before the Blue Mountains had been crossed, before the railways had been established, in the early days of the Colony of N.S.W, there lived near Windsor a wealthy solicitor who had been given a land grant, with men assigned to him and his large establishment. One of the men, whom we shall call Mr. Judd, made his way to Windsor. There were two brothers who had a business in London. The older brother was moderate in his ways and had recently married
The other was reckless and, over a period of time, built up huge gambling debts. One day it was discovered that a large sum of money had been drawn from the firm's bankers, yet there was no evidence of it having been spent on the business. A search was made and the money was found in the older brother's desk. He was accused of using the money for his own benefit, and, although he protested strongly, saying that he was innocent of the crime, he was nevertheless found guilty and was transported to the colony of N.S.W, assigned to the wealthy solicitor at Windsor.
His new bride followed him to Sydney soon afterwards, and she found herself employed as a servant to the solicitor's wife. In fact they did not see very much of each other, due to the demands made upon Mrs. Judd by the solicitor's wife.
The solicitor had a brother who visited him fairly frequently, and he grew fond of Judd's wife, but although she was fond of him she remained true to her unfortunate husband. But gossip began to spread through the household, and soon reached the ears of Mr. Judd. One night the couple disappeared together with a boat, and it was clear that they had escaped down the river.
Constables were brought out to search for the Judds and bring them back; but although they searched for several days they could find no trace of the missing couple. It was on their return that one of the constables saw a column of smoke rising from behind a promontory in Cowan Creek. He dismounted from his horse and climbed the steep rocky slope to the top and looked over.
There he saw Judd standing on a rock with a gun in his hand. The two saw each other at the same moment. The constable fired first hitting Judd in the heart. He fell dead instantly. His wife rushed out of the little hut they had built, and fainted over his body. Hurriedly they buried him, with no tombstone to mark the spot.
From that day on, and for many years afterwards, residents said that they often saw the ghost of Judd hovering at night, over Cowan Creek.
( The Manly Daily Wednesday 30th July,1980 )
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