For as long as I can remember,...for as far back in my life as I can recall I have had people (friends, teachers, family) shoving there ideas, there opinions, there advice, shoving themselves down my throat. And this is why I have the interest that I do in urban legends and everything that they touch on. For as long as I can remember up until I was about twelve years old I had to live with ghost stories,...specifically Pen Ryn School. I went to Pen Ryn from first grade through forth grade. My father was president of the school board at the time and so even though it was a private school I nearly got in for free.
Although it was expanded upon various times the main building began its construction at about 1750 on the banks of the Delaware River. There are many various ghost stories surrounding Pen Ryn and of its legend. One inparticular that comes to mind is the tale of Robert Bickley. This was first told to me when I was practically a baby still in diapers. This story was to my knowledge first printed in "A History of Pen Ryn". The copy that I do have is fifty-six pages long and reads like a college thesis. It was again printed in "Bucks County Ghost Stories" Published in 1999 by Exeter House Books. During the time of the Revolutionary War there were many Torie sympathizers and Robert Bickley's family was among them. It was supposedly Robert Bickley who had intentions and indeed did marry a colonial woman. He brought her home one evening to meet the family. His father who ruled the family was so outraged that he forbid the woman to ever enter his house and following the many heated arguments one evening on Christmas Eve night Robert went down to the river and threw himself into it. Now every Christmas Eve night and some say on other nights throughtout the year Robert will walk up the path that he traveled in going down the river to the house and knock on the all of the doors, tap on all of the windows trying as hard as he can in death...to reach his father...that he was not able to accomplish in life.
A second ghost, one that is believed to be the wife of Robert Bickley is said to haunt not the mansion but the grounds in her despair of never having been accepted by the Bickley family. She has been seen riding a huge black horse. Now many different stories have been told about what she has done while riding the horse like screaming at the top of her lungs, while wearing a long black cape and carrying a whip slashing down with it upon anything that moves that is close enough to her including people. I've also heard that if you see her and she sees you, she will ride directly toward you and she will ride through you, not even slowing down and that she will disappear into the woods like the typical phantom, like she was never there at all. She has also been known to have been seen in the vicinity of the Bickley vault which for all purposes no longer exists as it was ripped out of the ground within the last few years and now is only a shell of what it was remains. She has been known to be seen along the path of the river but never ventures to close to or to near the main building. Her reluctance to approach is do no doubt to the fact that she was never welcome there as a bride. Now as a reference you should know that there are atleast two vaults. The one in the ground which was ripped out of the ground is in the woods and is closer to the main road (State Road). The "other vault" is farther south and is closer to the river and is still there.
In what is quite possibly the most recent ghost story from the haunted mansion and its grounds which as I understand it took place within the last twenty years is the story of one of the owners of Pen Ryn who one day while sitting on his porch with his German Shepherd, noticed what appeared to be a man approached his house. Now apparently the man appeared menacing because for whatever reason the owner became scared and ran into the house. The shepherd tried to stop the intruder by barking at it and biting it. Later when the dog was found ripped from limb from limb, it was concluded that someone had to be very very strong to do that. Evenstill, the owner of the dog and and of the property was also found ripped apart, literally. It was concluded that there is no human on Earth that could've done that to a dog or a man.
If you do decide to take an excursion to Pen Ryn I suggest that you try and go in from the public entrance. Where station road ends and crosses over State Rd. to be a drive way for people who go down to the river. That area of Pen Ryn was sold to the township of Bensalem some years ago. Lately there has been a police presence down there so watch yourself. If you do go into Pen Ryn consider taking the path that follows south from the main building along the river. At the end of this path is a group of houses that belong to people who are obviously "very well off" From where the path lets you out if you look to the right there is a fenced in area where a number of horses are kept. Stay away from the horses, people have been known to be shot at by the people that live there all for the capitol crime of "approaching their horses"! If you walk somewhat farther there is the "other crypt" that appears much larger than the other one that no longer exists. Its locked, I've tried to open it, but I did not have lock pick or anything else that would've been handy to open it (like the key or anything like that). But anyone who does have a lock pick or what have you should be able to make short work of it! (I've got to go get myself a lock pick!) The people who live in that area of the "other vault" are said to be descendants of the original members of the of the family that inherited the estate from the original people that settled the land and built the main the building. The people who originally founded and settled Pen Ryn apparently died out without leaving any direct descendants to inherit the land. So the last surviving member of the Bickley family Isaac Bickley persuaded his distant relative Lloyd Wharton to assume the surname Bickley and in 1843 the Pennsylvania legislature passed a law effecting this change of name. Mr. Wharton added the name of Bickley to that of Wharton and was subsequently known as Lloyd Wharton Bickley.
Submitted by: SPOOQEYRUBEN