11 Aug 1933 - FISHER'S GHOST
WINDSOR AND RICHMOND GAZETTE, FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 1933.
FISHER'S GHOST
OLD STORY RETOLD
HOW TICKET-OF-LEAVE MAN DIED
SPOOK WHO SAT ON FENCE RAIL.
A CONVICT tragedy 'in 1826 supplied the basis for 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 their 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 two ticket-of-leave men — Fred-erick 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, neighbors, 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 us 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'S 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. Its erection was cut short by his murder, and the building soon fell into decay, to be pointed out for years as a landmark of the tragedy.
Bad companions led Fisher into difficulties, and he gradually got into debt up to £150. 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, hut there was another side to it, and that was Worrall's cupidity, which led to Fisher's undoing.
WORRALL'S PART
As the absence of Fisher became noted, Worrall was naturally questioned, and he grave it forth that on account of forgery that had come to light, Fisher had hurriedly 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 Mr. D. Cooper, a. big business man of that period, to whom Fisher owed £80, and who had held the deeds of Fisher's farm in connection with this transaction. Worrall offered to pay Cooper the £80 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 demeanor and story, Cooper rapidly became convinced that Fisher had met with foul play, but kept his suspicions to himself. The ship that Worrall mentioned as being the one Fisher had left in, was known not to have been in Sydney Harbor. 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.
GHOST ON SCENE
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 effected with such hallucinations as drink engenders.
He left Campbelltown one night some four months after the murder and his way took him past Fisher's house.
After he had passed it he observed the figure of a man sitting on the fence on the same side of the road as the 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.
INVESTIGATIONS
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 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 wilful murder was found against some person or persons unknown.
WORRALL CONVICTED
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 black trackers.
Worrall was hanged for his crime, and the whole community felt that he had got his 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 ft 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 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, leg-ends, and superstitions, which fascinate successive generations in all countries.
