History & local legend
Governor Printz Park in Essington recalls the early Swedish settlement on the Delaware River. An old ghost story associated with Printz Hall turns that colonial past into a disastrous night's work for a fiddler named Peter Matthews. Charles M. Skinner included the tale in his nineteenth-century collection of American legends.
After teasing a property owner for being afraid of his own empty house, Peter accepts a paid job as its caretaker. On his first night, an armored figure identifying himself as Governor Printz wakes him and leads him to a candlelit ballroom. The governor's dead companions have assembled for their annual revel on the autumnal equinox. Peter must play for them, but he is forbidden to speak.
The dance ends, and the governor begins filling Peter's fiddle bag with gold. Overcome with delight, Peter cries out and breaks the rule. The room goes dark. A friend finds him the next morning on the dusty floor beside his shattered instrument. The bag is empty. In Skinner's ending, the house burns a day later, and Peter insists the ghosts supplied the fire.
