Old Mother Shipton statue in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, erected 2017.
For in those wondrous far off days
The women shall adopt a craze
To dress like men, and trousers wear
And to cut off their locks of hair
They'll ride astride with brazen brow
As witches do on broomstick now.
Old Mother Shipton predicting gender equality? Unknown but likely from Charles Hindlay, 1862, or later.
It’s October, Halloween month, and so its only fitting to have a suitably spooky Herstory for this month, and one of my favourite witchy characters from history: Old Mother Shipton.
The story of the infamous witch, soothsayer and feared prophetess who has been immortalised in English folklore is almost entirely fabricated, so we have to take these details with a hefty pinch of salt! The first book of her prophesies, for example, was written in 1641, nearly 100 years after her death and later another ‘biography’ was written by Richard Head (awkward yet appropriate name there!) who admitted to inventing most of the details of her early life. Sadly, until we can contact Shipton from beyond the grave, we will never know the real ‘truth’ of her story. But the details are entertaining nonetheless, and fascinating - if only a slither of them is true. So, here goes…
A Devil Bastard is born…
Mother Shipton was born Ursula Sontheil/Soothtale in 1488 to an orphan teenage girl in a cave in Knaresborough, Yorkshire. She was born during a violent thunderstorm, and was horribly deformed at birth, with a hunchback, a hooked nose and bulging eyes. It was claimed that Ursula’s mother had made a pact with the Devil, resulting in her hideous child. Too afraid to reveal her monstrous infant to the the world, Agatha, Ursula’s mother raised her alone for the first two years of her life in the cave. They were then ‘rescued’ by the Abbot of Beverley who put Agatha into a convent (for her sins) and Ursula into a foster home - separating them forever. Being ugly and hunchbacked, Ursula was ostracised from society and found solace in the forest, learning about plants and herbs and their medicinal powers. She was learning of course, to become a cunning person- something that many witches were later accused of.
The legend of her witchy powers started in childhood. When she was two, she was apparently left at home one day while her foster mother went to run errands. When she returned, she found the front door wide open and a loud wailing coming from the house like “a thousand cats in consort". Ursula was found naked and cackling demonically, perched above the pot over the fireplace!
On another occasion some years later, Ursula was running errands for her mother and walked past a group of parish chiefs. They began to insult and mock her appearance cruelly, calling her a ‘Devil Bastard’, Within moments, one of them saw his neck ruff transform into a toilet seat around his neck! Another one’s hat turned into a chamber pot, while yet another man suddenly sprouted horns out of his head! The men returned to normal shortly afterwards, but saw it as Ursula’s doing, and people feared her after that.
Illustration from Mother Shipton Investigated (1881) by William Henry Harrison
‘Witch of York’
As she grew into adulthood, Ursula used her knowledge of herbs and plants to become a herbalist and started to gain the trust of the local people. Cunning folk often held great credibility in small rural communities, and Ursula appeared to be a successful healer. She also met and married a local carpenter called Toby Shipton. Because of her hideous appearance though, the locals marvelled that she’d managed to find someone to marry her - there were rumours that she must’ve bewitched him. Only two years into their marriage, however, Toby died and immediately the town turned against Ursula, accusing her of having bewitched him to death. She moved back to the cave in Knaresborough that she was born in, and continued her herbalist business from there, gaining quite the reputation nationwide. Proof of her existence is in a letter from King Henry VIII to the Duke of Norfolk in 1537. He refers to a ‘witch of York’ and it is believed this refers to Shipton.
As her fame and popularity as a healer grew, so did Mother Shipton’s prophesies. She claimed to be able to see the future. She apparently accurately predicted a devastating storm in York, the demise of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey and the dissolution of the monasteries, among others. She died in 1561 approximately.
Statue in Mother Shipton’s cave
Legacy
Mother Shipton would probably have been forgotten - she probably would have simply become one of the many ‘cunning women’ of the early modern period had it not been for the books and legends written about her long after her death. In 1862, Charles Hindlay wrote the most famous account of more than 100 of her supposed prophesies, all in rhyming couplets. In this book, she accurately predicts the great plague of 1665, the fire of London of 1666 and many future inventions such as trains and iron ships. She even predicts the end of the world in 1881. This caused great panic among people at the time, many who left their homes and spent nights praying in fear!
But Hindlay later admitted making the whole thing up - Mother Shipton sadly had not written them at all! In fact, Shipton did not write anything during her lifetime. It is unlikely she was even literate.
Later in the 20th century, more versions of Shipton’s prophesies were published, so it is very unclear which, if any, existed at the time she was actually alive and originated from her. Here, for example, she appears to be predicting the internet:
Around the world men's thoughts will fly
Quick as the twinkling of an eye.
And here she is predicting declining birth rates and marriage, and dare I say, childless cat ladies…?
Then love shall die and marriage cease
And nations wane as babes decrease
And wives shall fondle cats and dogs
And men live much the same as hogs.
The problem is this language is distinctly not 16th century, so we can say with reasonable certainty that these predictions were probably written as they were happening, in the 19th and early 20th centuries - not by Mother Shipton..!
Nevertheless, Mother Shipton has become a folk legend. The cave she was born and lived/died in is now a major tourist attraction. It contains a natural petrifying pool, littered with objects. If you leave something in the water long enough, it turns to stone over time. It could well be this natural phenomena that inspired the legends of Mother Shipton’s magic!
She has also been immortalised in the traditional pantomime dame figure, which was believed to be inspired by her appearance. There is even a moth, native to Yorkshire named after her because its markings look ‘hag-like’ in profile!
Mother Shipton moth. Wikipedia.
Although Shipton was not (thankfully) killed as a witch in her lifetime, her existence helped to perpetuate the atmosphere of intolerance and hostility toward ageing, often disabled and poor women. It was these women, sometimes eking out a living as cunning folk; who were targeted during the witch hunts.
Mother Shipton has been featured in many famous books, films and TV shows, not least Daniel Defoe’s Journal of a Plague Year. Below, however, is one of my favourite depictions of her. This is a comedy short from a series called Psychobitches and here is the brilliant Reece Shearsmith playing her. it’s not a serious feminist interpretation of course, but sometimes we need some light entertainment!
So that’s it for this month’s herstory. If you want to learn more London’s infamous witches, come along to one of our many Hex and the City walking tours this month.
Happy Halloween folks!
Herstorical Tours…x
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