Ruff justice
Prophet and loss... John Vincent looks at the sad life of the not-so-wicked witch of Knaresborough.
Afew weeks ago I was frightening small children with the 16th century legend of the ferocious, all-consuming bat-winged Dragon of Wantley. Today I delve further into Yorkshire folklore with the strange, sad tale of Mother Shipton – soothsayer, prophetess and witch, who was born to a 15-year-old girl in a cave on the banks of the River
Nidd just outside Knaresborough during a violent thunderstorm.
She was born Ursula Southeil (or Southill) in about 1488 and was said to be hideously ugly, with a large, crooked nose, bulging eyes, hunched back and twisted legs. According to legend, as an infant she was once found naked and cackling, perched on top of the iron bar where pot hooks were fastened above the fireplace. Mother and infant daughter were ostracised and forced to live alone in the cave for two years before Ursula was rehoused by the Abbot of Beverley.
Ursula’s deformities made her the subject of much ridicule. But when she was called “hag face” and the “Devil’s bastard”, it was said that one man’s ruff around his neck was transformed into a lavatory seat, another’s hat became a chamber pot and yet another sprouted a part of horns. After that, nobody teased her again.
She did find a husband though, marrying carpenter Toby Shipton near
York in 1512, and began concocting medicinal remedies, telling fortunes, casting spells, making predictions and gaining a reputation as England’s most famous prophetess. She foretold the fates of several rulers as well as the invention of iron ships, the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the defeat of the Spanish Armada.
Now the tale of Mother Shipton – part fact, part legend – has been revived with the sale at Morphets of Harrogate of a rare illustrated pamphlet of 1771 which fetched, despite its tattered, creased and stained condition, £2,640, against an estimate of £200-£300. It came from the collection of historian Dr Arnold Kellett, a former mayor of Knaresborough, president of the Yorkshire Dialect Society and head of languages at King James School, Knaresborough, who died in 2009 aged 83.
A little more on Mother Shipton... she lived on her own in the woods after her husband died suddenly in 1514 and locals whispered she was responsible. She is said to have accurately predicted through verse the introduction of a piped water system for York, the toppling of a local church steeple in a storm, the marriage of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn, the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the creation of the Church of England.
Mother Shipton never wrote anything down or published anything during her lifetime but she acquired legendary status. She gave her name to pubs – and a moth – and a caricature of her was used in pantomimes. A statue sits on a bench in Knaresborough’s Market Square – and Mother Shipton’s Cave where she was born is one of England’s oldest tourist attractions. Her poor mother Agatha, who refused to reveal to authorities the identity of Ursula’s father, never saw her daughter again after the age of two. Mother Shipton herself died in 1561, aged about 73.
Mother Shipton lived on her own in the woods after her husband died suddenly in 1514.