On dozens of occasions motion pictures have been partially taken in Windsor, but when it became necessary to take indoor scenes and settings all the actors and actresses returned to Sydney to the studios and the picture finished there. In the case of "Fisher's Ghost", a picture recently filmed in the town, every inch of the film was exposed in Windsor and all the indoor settings were taken here also. For quite a lot of the picture portions of the long sitting room at the Fitzroy Hotel were used; then the old historic Court House for the dramatic court scenes; old local cellars for dungeon scenes, and so on ; and when it came to the outdoor portions, then the well-known local beauty spots in and around the town were used as the back-ground for the interesting story. Outside all of this dozens of local people portrayed various parts in the story and perhaps prominent among them it might be mentioned that popular John (Tiddly) Lamond junr., took a very important and prominent speaking part. Another small speaking part was taken by Mr. Frank Campbell, of the "Windsor and Richmond Gazette" who, as foreman of the jury had the unpleasant task of bringing in a unanimous verdict of guilty against the prisoner at the bar who is tried for murder. The picture has been secured by the propietors of the local theatre and as the occasion is perhaps a very important one they have decided to show it to the people for two nights, on Friday and Saturday the 5th and 6th of December. The supporting programme on each night will consist of good features comedy and gazette, and will be entirely different on each night, so it is perhaps advisable for you to see the picture on both nights as this will give you the chance to pick out something you had missed the night before. The box plan is now open at Mrs. C. M. Davies' shop, next to the theatre, and it is advisable for you to book your seats as there is sure to be an unprecedented rush on the screening nights.
( Windsor and Richmond Gazette - 5th December, 1924.)
One night in 1826 a number of men met in a convivial gathering held in a cottage in Campbelltown. They were mostly workmen employed upon the erection of a large building for Mr. Frederick Fisher, a wealthy ticket-of-leave man, who owned a couple of farms in the vicinity of the town.
Ninety-nine years ago Campbelltown was a small roadside village, its prominent landmark being a church, a courthouse, and a gaol, built by order of Governor Macquarie - and remaining today, witness of good workmanship - a public house or two, a store and a smithy, and a few humble cottages comprised the remainder of the town, which, however, was surrounded by several large estates.
In that convivial party one man sat aloof, not only because he was neither master nor man, but chiefly because of the nervous, slinking manner which characterised him.
"Say, Worrell," said one of the men, "you must get the master to shout when he comes." Worrell appeared startled, and hastily replied: "Oh, I suppose he'll do that alright." Snatching a drink from a mug near him, he relapsed into a broody silence.
Later, a knock was heard, and one of them admitted one whom the company recognised as the master.
Frederick Fisher was a tall, serious-looking man, beyond middle age, as his iron-grey hair testified; withal a kindly, though sad-looking man. Worrell greeted his employer, and made room for him near the fire. Fisher conversed with him in an undertone. After readily giving a half-crown for a drink round, he wished the company good-night, and accompanied by Worrell, he left the cottage.
Now this happened on the night of June 17, 1826, and Frederick Fisher was never seen alive afterwards. His disappearance not only mystified his neighbours, but has also inspired several stories of Fisher's Ghost.
There are those who affirm that Fisher's Ghost is only a myth, a legend, or a bit of choice fiction. Far be it from me to differ from such authorities. I stand behind Dr. Martin, a friend of Dr. Patrick Hill, and the author of "A History of the Colonies, 1835", Mr. W.H. Suttor, and Mr. Rusden, author of "History of Australia", and with them assert that it was the statement of Farley that he had seen Fisher's Ghost sitting on a rail, that led to the conviction of the criminal. Whether Farley was drunk, or mad, or conscious stricken, or clairvoyant, I do not know or care.
Like all Protestant chaplains, Rev. Thomas Reddall, clergyman at Campbelltown, was a magistrate, and he was very disturbed over Fisher's disappearance. He questioned Worrell, who promptly dismissed the subject by saying that his employer had, in fulfilment of a long-felt desire, shipped secretly back to England. Some weeks after Worrell approached Mr. Ben Warby and offered to sell him several head of Fisher's cattle, claiming that the latter had given him power of attorney to realise on his belongings. Worrell was arrested on suspicion, but the Crown having no case against him, he was discharged.
General opinion was that Fisher, in reality, had gone to England, but Messrs Reddall, Warby and Cooper prevailed on Hon. Alex M'Leay, the Colonial Secretary, to offer a reward of 20 Pounds for the discovery of Fisher's body, or 5 Pounds on proof of his departure from the colony.
A few weeks later, Rev. T. Reddall was in his study, when Mr. Farley, a farmer from Appin, was announced. "Good-day Mr. Farley," said the clergyman, "and what may I do for you?"
"I've come to see you over the matter of Fisher", replied the farmer nervously.
"Sit down, Mr. Farley. Now, what is it you wish to say about this mysterious affair?"
"In truth, sir, you'll hardly believe me, perhaps, but yesterday evening when I was driving in from Appin, just at the end of the town, past the turn-off to Camden, my horse shied, and, looking up to see the cause, I saw the ghost of Fisher sitting on the fence there!"
"Fisher's ghost! Nonsense, Farley. You surely don't expect me to believe that?"
"Sure as I live, sir, we were just jog-trotting along in the cart, and, they say, a horse won't pass a dead body. I saw Fisher just as plain as I see you."
"And he raised his hand and pointed towards the waterhole".
Dismissing Farley with a solid injunction to speak to nobody about Fisher, Mr. Reddall sent a message post haste to Sydney, and the constables and black-tracker arrived. Directed, by Mr. Reddall, the tracker examined the fence, and then, following a trail to the waterhole, he said that a man's body was in it.
In a few minutes Fisher's body was recovered, and later in the day the body was identified by several, including Dr. Patrick Hill, Government Medical Superintendent at Liverpool, who had been surgeon of the ship that brought Fisher to the colony. Dr. Hill conducted the post mortem examination, and found that deceased's skull had been fractured.
Worrell was arrested, and tried for the murder of Fisher, found guilty, and sentenced to death. The day before his execution, he confessed his guilt to the Rev. William Cowper, of St. Phillip's, Sydney. He was hanged in the old yard overlooking George Street, Sydney, opposite the turn into Circular Quay.
( Windsor and Richmond Gazette - 4th December, 1925.)
A convict tragedy in 1826 supplied the basis of a ghost story that became famous throughout Australia. It was an old but circumstantial spook story over 50 years ago, and we have since heard it recounted with superstitious awe, as a case in which a dead man's ghost appeared to reveal the murder. If there are any who still cling to the belief that Fisher's Ghost was a matter of supernatural agency, the full story of this old Campbelltown tragedy may help in dispelling that idea.
The weird story of Fisher's Ghost centres round the ticket-of-leave men - Frederick Fisher, the victim, and George Worrall, the murderer. They lived together at Fisher's Farm, in the vicinity of Campbelltown, and on the night of June 17, 1826, 106 years ago, they were drinking with others in one of the old-time Campbelltown inns. Other men, neighbours, were there, and all left together.
Shortly after a couple of the men returned to the hotel. They had come, so they said, to rejoin Fisher, who they thought had returned before them.
"Where is he?" they asked.
"He promised some money for drinks".
No, they were told, Fisher had not returned, nor did he ever return again - nor was he ever again seen alive. But it would be better to tell the whole story - the why and the wherefore - as related by an old time writer who went to Campbelltown a few years after the tragedy to piece things together, and get, among other things, a reliable aspect of the ghost story.
Fisher was a boy at the time he committed the offence which made him a convict. His misdeed completely ostracised him from his relatives, and he was left entirely to himself and his own devices when he got his ticket-of-leave. After his discharge he went to live in Campbelltown, and went, too, with the best intentions of making good.
He owned a cottage, and adjoining it he started to build a large brick building to be used as a store. The store was never finished. The erection was cut short by his murder, and the building soon fell into decay, to be pointed out for years as the landmark of the tragedy.
Bad companions led Fisher into difficulties, and he gradually got into debt up to 150 Pounds. One of his creditors took action, and he found himself lodged in gaol. While so incarcerated he took counsel, and evil counsel it was, of a friend named Worrall, who proposed to him a fraudulent transaction whereby he could save his property from his creditors and retain it for his own use when he came out of gaol.
He agreed to sign a bogus conveyance of the property to Worrall, and at the same time obtain from Worrall a written agreement to return the property to him on demand. These nefarious documents were duly prepared and signed by both. On the face of things everything looked all right, and the creditor who was responsible for gaoling him withdrew his plaint, as it was no good keeping a man in gaol who had parted with his property. The evil scheme had worked well, but there was another side to it, and that was Worrall's cupidity, which led to Fisher's undoing.
As the absence of Fisher became noted, Worrall was naturally questioned, and he gave it forth that on account of forgery that had come to light, Fisher had hurredly left the colony. He certainly detailed how he had accompanied Fisher to Sydney, and seen him off in a vessel sailing for England. He added that Fisher had left him an authority to deal with his farm and effects. This accounted for him selling some stock immediately.
The alleged written authority was never produced, but he did show a document to a man with reference to Fisher's house. The man he showed it to knew Fisher's signature well and quickly realised that the one produced by Worrall was a forgery, but he refrained from comment at the time.
Then Worrall drove another nail in his coffin when he went to see Dr. D. Cooper, a big businessman of that period, to whom Fisher owed 80 Pounds, and who had held the deeds of Fisher's farm in connection with this transaction. Worrall offered to pay Cooper the 80 Pounds if he would hand over to himself as the new owner the farm deeds. This Cooper refused to do, and closely questioned Worrall as to facts connected with Fisher's flight from the colony.
Cooper was well acquainted with Fisher, and was convinced that there were no reasons why he should want to hurriedly leave New South Wales. From Worrall's demeanour and story, Cooper rapidly became convinced that Fisher had met with foul play, but kept his suspicions to himself. The ship that Worrall had mentioned as being the one Fisher had left in, was known to have been in Sydney Harbour. While Cooper had not told Worrall that he suspected him of doing away with Fisher, he did tell another person, and when that person told Worrall in a friendly way, he was struck with the man's agitation.
Then the ghost story, as told by a man named Farley (or Hurley as the old account we are using had it), developed a new chapter in the drama. Farley, as we will call him, deeply impressed the little community, whose views on the supernatural were by no means advanced. Farley was known to be a man of sober habits and not therefore likely to be affected by hallucinations as drink engenders.
He left Campbelltown one night some four months after the murder and his way took him past Fisher's house. As he drew closer he recognised the features of Fisher, then, as reported, well on his way to England. He walked closer to the figure to make sure of his man, when the ghostly face that he saw filled his heart with terror and chained him to the spot.
The figure rose slowly and waved an arm, pointing in the direction of a small creek, which crossed the paddocks; it then disappeared slowly from view, apparently following the windings of the creek.
More than terrified, Farley ran to the nearest house and swooned in the doorway. He was carried inside and lay raving for well-nigh a week. When he recovered he asked for the magistrate, and William Howe, of Glen Lee, who was Superintendent of Police in the Campbelltown district, came immediately to him.
Whether the story told was believed or not, it led to decisive action. Other rumors (sic) had spread, and some four months after the date of Fisher's disappearance the authorities set to work to investigate them and the ghost story told by Farley.
Constable George Leeland was entrusted with the inquiry. He was instructed to search for Fisher's body on the assumption that murder had been committed. The first thing he found was blood sprinkled on some of the rails of the fence on which the ghost had sat. Attention was drawn to these stains - attempts had apparently been made to burn off the blood marks. Then the services of blacktrackers were resorted to and two aboriginals took up the search.
Starting from the damning evidence on the fence, they stopped at an adjacent waterhole fed by a creek. Gilbert (one of the blacks) scummed off something from the surface of the pool with a maiza leaf, smelt it, tasted it, and said, "White man's fat sit down here."
Led by this native, they went further up the creek 40 yards away, and one of the blacks dug an iron rod in the ground in a marshy spot, and called out, "White man here."
The place was dug and the body of Fisher was found. At the inquest a verdict of murder was found against person or persons unknown.
The outstanding suspect was Worrall, who had profited by Fisher's death. He was promptly arrested, also another man named Lawrence. They were duly tried, and Worrall was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Before his execution he made a confession which, although confirming his guilt, sought to prove extenuating circumstances.
His story was to the effect that he and Fisher had been driving a horse out of a crop of wheat, and that in making a blow at the horse with a paling, he inadvertently struck Fisher and killed him. But this story did not ring true, for one reason. Instead of one accidental hit on the victim's head there were many wounds which betokened a cruel battering.
He further recounted that becoming alarmed at the way in which rumor was coupling his name with Fisher's disappearance, he removed the murdered body from where he had hidden it in the reeds of the marsh, to where it was found by the blacktrackers.
Worrall was hanged for his crime, and the whole community felt that he had got his just deserts. But the tale of the murdered man's ghost standing accusatively at his own slip-rails died hard; for fully 70 years after the crime it was always evidence, when the supernatural came under discussion in local circles, and to generations it was served up as an authentic case of spirit intervention in the cause of justice.
As a ghost story it was mentioned briefly in R. M. Martin's "History of the British Colonies", published in London in 1835. A very full account was also published in Tegg's monthly magazine, March, 1836, and most of the later versions were based on this last publication.
It has been suggested that Farley - the man who had the vision, or rather the man who said he had - was one of a number of residents who were certain of Worrall's guilt, before the police took action, and, becoming fearful of being accused of being an accomplice, or of being dragged into the affair as an informer, decided on the ghost story as a safer way of bringing matters to a head.
The press of the day, however, did not in any way foster the idea. In the "Monitor's" story there was no hint of the supernatural, nor was there in the "Sydney Gazette" or the "Australian", which all dealt with the publication of the murder.
It is therefore at the door of Dame Rumor that this long-cherished belief must be laid, and since she is responsible for so much, this weird tale of 106 years ago must be regarded as part of that old folk-lore which supplies the material for innumerable tales, legends, and superstitions, which fascinate successive generations in all countries.
(Windsor and Richmond Gazette - 11th August, 1933 ).
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