Mother Shipton: England's Nostradamus

The Life of a Seer Who Predicted Many Important Historical Events

A number of legends surround Mother Shipton's birth. One speaks of her mother as being an orphan girl and her father, a handsome demon. Their courtship was not a secret and eventually the locals had the girl charged with witchcraft, of which she was later acquitted.

Once freed, she found that her demon lover had abandoned her. In her anguish, she gave birth to a deformed daughter and later died of a broken heart. Other tales talk of the mother having been seduced by a handsome charmer who found her dreaming on a shady bank.

On a thunderous July night, she went into labour and the baby was born in a shallow cave on the banks of the River Nidd. Nearby stood an ancient well whose waters had mystical powers. Leave anything underneath the trickling curtain of the water and it will turn to stone. The evidence can still be seen today.

Mother Shipton and Strange Powers in Her Childhood Years

Ursula was not a pretty baby. She had a hunchback, rickety legs and bulging eyes. Not a lot is known of her childhood but it seems that her mother gave her into the care of the parish nurse. The young girl enjoyed playing tricks on people and when teased by other children about her deformity, she would have her revenge by setting invisible demons on her tormentors.

Despite her loneliness, Ursula had a sense of humour. One day, for instance, at a meeting of the chief of the Parish, some men called her the 'Devil's Bastard'. As the gentlemen sat down to dinner, strange events began to happen. Some of the men's ruffs and hats were invisibly pulled off and replaced by chamber pots and the like.

An account of this, made in 1686, becomes quite rude with a lot of talk about "breaking of wind" and uproarious laughter until the landlord, appearing in the door to see what all the commotion was about, found that he too had not escaped the trickery. He had a large pair of horns on his head!

Mother Shipton's Early Predictions

Ursula became known as Mother Shipton after marrying a local man, Toby Shipton. The couple did not have any children, but they did live comfortably together. Slowly, Ursula Shipton became well-known locally for her predictions. At first they were limited to local matters such as births, marriages and deaths but as her fame grew, so did her scope for prediction.

People began to take her seriously, when they saw her prophecies come true. When, for instance, York acquired a piped water system where the water flowed through pipes laid across the bridge over the River Ouze, and a windmill drew up the water, they could relate it to what Mother Shipton had previously predicted:

"Water shall come over Ouze Bridge and a windmill shall be set upon a tower, and an Elm tree shall lie at every man's door." The pipes were made out of tree trunks and the trees were elm as this wood does not rot when immersed in water.

Just as Nostradamus lived in fear of persecution for practising the secret arts, so did Mother Shipton, and similarly, she expressed her prophecies in a cryptic form of symbolism.

She predicted the English invasion of France in 1513: "When the English Lion" (Henry VIII) "shall set his paw on the Gallic shore, than shall the Lilies begin to droop for fear. There shall be much weeping and wailing amongst the ladies of that country, because the Princely Eagle" (Maxmilian of Austria) "shall join the Lion to tread down all that shall oppose them".

Many of her other prophesies came true.

Sources

Mother Shipton,2 Prophecys (Pryor Publications (1998)

Kelley, Arnold Mother Shipton: Witch and Prophetess" (George Mann Books (2002))

First Published: Yahoo Voices 2010