Mother Shipton, or to use her proper name Ursula Southeil, was an English soothsayer, prophet and, some would say, witch. She was born in 1488 in a cave in Knaresborough, Yorkshire. At her birth, the midwife claimed to smell sulphur and reported that a terrifying crack of thunder rang out as the baby was born. She was said to be so ugly and deformed that locals claimed she was a child of the Devil and the poor infant was soon abandoned by her mother and brought up in a monastery. Strangely, the cave in which she was born contained a mysterious ‘petrifying well’ that turned everyday items into stone.
Ursula married carpenter Toby Shipton in 1512 and, soon afterwards, seemed to develop the gift of seeing into the future, including foretelling the Great Fire of London: ‘disaster fill the world with woe, in London, Primrose Hill.’
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe