Mother Shipton investigated: the result of critical examination in the British Museum Library of the literature relating to the Yorkshire sibyl

Front matter

RESEMBLANCE OF MOTHER SHIPTON TO MISTER PUNCH OF FLEET ST.

Punch:1881 Mother Shipton:1663

THE RESULT OF CRITICAL EXAMINATION IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM LIBRARY, OF THE LITERATURE RELATING TO THE YORKSHIRE SIBYL,

Chapter 1

MOTHER SHIPTON AND CARDINAL WOLSEY.

MOTHER SHIPTON INVESTIGATED.

Chapter first.

3em

This critical investigation of the Mother Shipton literature is published early in 1881, the year in which, according to that celebrated Yorkshire prophetess, the world is to come to an end. The best known of the prophecies attributed to her, is the following;

"The world to an end shall come, In eighteen hundred and eighty one."

This, and other prophecies, said to have been copied from records of unimpeachable antiquity in the British Museum Library, which prophecies in some cases have been reproduced in alleged fac-simile, have raised curiosity even in the scientific and sceptical mind, and fanned the flame of imagination in the mind idealistic, as to what amount of truth, or error, or deception, may be at the root of the matter. These questions it is my object to attempt to solve by reference to papers of true antiquity in the national possession.

Prophecies about the end of the world have always had more or less influence. Whiston predicted that the world would be destroyed on the 13th October, 1736, and crowds of people left London, to see, from neighbouring fields, the destruction of the city, which was to be "the beginning of the end."

Numbers of fanatics in Europe, predicted the end of the world in 999. "The scene of the last judgment was expected to be at Jerusalem. In the year 999, the number of pilgrims proceeding eastward, to await the coming of the Lord in that city, was so great that they were compared to a desolating army. Most of them sold their goods and possessions before they quitted Europe, and lived upon the proceeds in the Holy Land. Buildings of every sort were suffered to fall into ruins. It was thought useless to repair them when the end of the world was so near. Many noble edifices were deliberately pulled down. Even churches, usually so well maintained, shared the general neglect. Knights, citizens, and serfs, travelled eastwards in company, taking with them their wives and children, singing psalms as they went, and looking with fearful eyes upon the sky, which they expected each minute to open, and to let the Son of God descend in glory."

A panic occurred in Leeds in 1806, during which many in their fear "got religion" for a time, and indulged in a temporary repentance. A Yorkshire hen had been laying eggs in a village close by, inscribed, "Christ is coming." Eventually the writing was discovered to be in corrosive ink, and the trick by which observers were made to believe that the hen laid them in that condition, was found out.

The Pall Mall Gazette of April 14th, 1879, says that the Mid-Somerset people believed Mother Shipton to have prophesied that on Good Friday, 1879, Ham Hill, near Yeovil, would be swallowed up at 12 o'clock by an earthquake, and Yeovil itself visited by a tremendous flood. Some people actually left the locality with their families to avoid the calamity; others made various preparations for it. On the Good Friday large numbers of people flocked to the vicinity of Ham Hill, to see it swallowed up, but were disappointed.

The following is the most largely circulated form of one of other Shipton's reputed prophecies, which of late years has been exercising the public mind. I quote it from p. 450 of Notes and Queries, December 7th, 1872, but since, as well as before then, its circulation has been extensive.

ANCIENT PREDICTION,

"(Entitled by Popular tradition 'Mother Shipton's Prophecy,')

"Published in 1448, republished in 1641.

"Carriages without horses shall go, And accidents fill the world with woe. Around the world thoughts shall fly In the twinkling of an eye. The world upside down shall be And gold be found at the root of a tree. Through hills man shall ride, And no horse be at his side. Under water men shall walk, Shall ride, shall sleep, shall talk. In the air men shall be seen, In white, in black, in green; Iron in the water shall float, As easily as a wooden boat. Gold shall be found and shown In a land that's now not known. Fire and water shall wonders do, England shall at last admit a foe. The world to an end shall come, In eighteen hundred and eighty one."

The present popular ideas about Mother Shipton herself are twofold, as set forth in cheap publications, mostly almanacs with her name on the cover. Some of these profess to give her authentic history with the marvellous elements sifted out; others include the miraculous incidents.

The following account of her life, as adapted to the more sober-minded readers of the present century, is summarised by me from a book entitled Mother Shipton and Nixon's Prophecies, compiled from original and scarce editions by S. Baker, published in 1797, by Denley, Gate Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. The pamphlet gives information about the life of Nixon, a Cheshire prophet, also about Ursula Shipton, for Ursula is the real name of our heroine. She is stated by Baker to have been born in July 1488, in the reign of Henry VII, near Knaresborough, Yorkshire. She was baptised by the Abbot of Beverley, by the name of Ursula Sonthiel. "Her stature," adds her biographer, "was larger than common, her body crooked, her face frightful; but her understanding extraordinary."

Baker states that she was a pious person, who at the age of twenty-four was courted by one Toby Shipton, a builder, of Skipton, a village four miles north of York; soon afterwards they were married. She became known as Mother Shipton, and acquired fame by means of her extraordinary predictions.

When Cardinal Wolsey intended to remove his residence to York, she announced that he would never reach that city. The Cardinal sent three lords of his retinue in disguise, to inquire whether she had made such a prediction, and to threaten her if she persisted in it. She was then living in a village called Dring Houses, a mile to the west of the city. The retainers, led by a guide named Beasly, knocked at the door.

"Come in, Mr. Beasly, and three noble lords with you," said Mother Shipton.

She then treated them civilly, by setting out cakes and ale before them.

"You gave out," said they, "the Cardinal should never see York."

"No," she replied, "I said he might see it, but never come to it."

They responded, "When he does come, he'll surely burn thee."

"If this burn," said the Reverend Mother, "so shall I."

She then cast her linen handkerchief into the fire, allowed it to remain in the flames a quarter of an hour, and took it out unsinged.

One of her awe-stricken visitors then asked what she thought of him.

She answered "The time will come, my lord, when you shall be as low as I am, and that is low indeed."

This was judged to be verified when Thomas Lord Cromwell was beheaded.

Cardinal Wolsey, on his arrival at Cawood, ascended the Castle Tower, and while viewing York, eight miles off, vowed he would burn the witch when he reached there. But ere he descended the stairs, a message from the King demanded his presence forthwith, and while on his journey to London, he was taken ill and died at Leicester.

She accurately foretold the destruction by tempest of the Ouse Bridge and Trinity Church, York, in the following mystical language: "Before Ouze Bridge and Trinity Church meet, what is built in the day shall fall in the night, till the highest stone of the church be the lowest stone of the bridge."

Baker's booklet passed through two editions in 1797. He alleges that some of her prophecies therein were copied from an "original scroll delivered by her to the Abbot of Beverley; privately preserved in a noble family for many years, and lately discovered among other curious and valuable manuscripts." He states that she foretold the time of her death, and that after taking solemn leave of her friends she departed, with much serenity, A.D. 1651, when upwards of seventy years of age. A stone monument was erected to her memory on the high North Road, between the villages of Clifton and Skipton, about a mile from York. The monument represents a woman upon her knees, with her hands closed before her, in a praying posture, and "stands to be seen there to this day," (1797). The following is said to have been her epitaph:—

Here lye's she who never ly'd Whose skill often has been try'd Her Prophecies shall still survive, And she keep her name alive.

Chapter 2

Chapter Second.

The miraculous incidents in the life of Mother Shipton, as published in various almanacs and pamphlets during the last 200 years, are, for the most part, culled from a book written by Richard Head. The earliest extant edition of this work is dated 1684, and to it his initials only are attached. Another edition dated 1687 has his name appended to the preface. The first of these editions is in the British Museum Library, and the following is a copy of its title page:—

The

Life and Death

of

Mother Shipton.

Being not only a true Account of her Strange BIRTH, and most Important Passages of her LIFE, but also of her Prophesies: Now newly Collected. and Historically Experienced, from the time of her Birth, in the Reign of KING HENRY the VII, until this present year 1684, Containing the most Important Passages of State during the reign of these Kings and Queens of England following, viz.

Henry the VIII. | } { | King James.

Edward the VI. | King Charles the I.

Queen Mary. | King Charles the II.

Queen Elizabeth. | Whom God Preserve.

Strangly Preserved amongst other writings belonging to an Old Monastry in York-shire, and now published for the Information of Posterity. To which are added some other Prophesies yet unfulfil'd. As also Mr. Holwell's Predictions concerning the Turk, Pope, and French King, With Reflections thereupon.

London, Printed for Benj. Harris, at the Stationers-Armes and Anchor under the Piazza of the Royal Exchange. 1684.

Head's book, in the black-letter edition of 1684, sets forth at considerable length, that in 1486 a woman named Agatha Shipton lived in a place called "Naseborough " near the Dropping Well in Yorkshire. Her parents died, and she came to poverty. The Devil approached her in handsome guise, made love to her, carried her off on a demon steed, displayed before her a phantom but apparently real mansion, in which they were married. He promised to give her power over "haile, tempests, with lightning and thunder," the power of traveling from place to place in an instant, and to place the hidden treasures of the earth at her disposal, on certain conditions.

Allured by these promises "she condescended to all the Devil would have her do. Whereupon he bid her say after him, in this manner: Raziel ellimiham irammish zirigai Psonthonphanchia Raphael elhaveruna tapinotambecaz mitzphecat jarid cuman hapheah Gabriel Heydonturris dungeonis philonomostarkes sophecord hankim. After she had repeated these words after him, he pluckt her by the Groin, and there immediately grew a kind of Tet, which he instantly suckt, telling her that must be his constant Custom with her, morning and evening; now did he bid her say after him again, Kametzeatuph Odel Pharaz Tumbagin Gall Flemmegen Victow Denmarkeonto, having finisht his last hellish speech, which the chiefest of his Minions understand not, out of which none but the Devil himself can pick out the meaning; I say, it thundered so horribly, that every clap seemed as if the vaulted roof of Heaven had crackt and was tubling down on her head; and withal, that stately Palace which she thought she had been in, vanisht in a trice; so did her sumptuous apparel: and now her eyes being opened, she found herself in a dark dolesome Wood; a place which from the Creation, had scarce ever enjoyed the benefit of one single Sun-Beam. Whilst she was thinking what course to steer in order to her return, two flaming fiery Dragons appear'd before her tyed to a Chariot, and as she was consulting with her self what was best to be done, she insensibly was hoisted into it, and with speed unimaginable conveyed through the Air to her own poor Cottage."

Signs and wonders thenceforth attended Agatha wherever she went, so that the neighbours were too much afraid of her to persecute her, especially as a winged dragon had once carried her away from the presence of the local magistrate.

In course of time her hellish offspring came into the world. The baby Mother Shipton was at the time of her birth "of an indifferent height, but very morose and big bon'd, her head very long, with very great goggling, but sharp and fiery Eyes, her Nose of an incredible and unproportionable length, having in it many crooks and turnings, adorned with many strange Pimples of divers colours, as Red, Blew, and mixt, which like Vapours of Brimstone gave such a lustre to her affrighted spectators in the dead time of the Night, that one of them confessed several times in my hearing, that her nurse needed no other light to assist her in the performance of her Duty: Her cheeks were of a black swarthy Complexion, much like a mixture of black and yellow jaundies; wrinckled, shrivelled, and very hollow; insomuch, that as the Ribs of her Body, so the impression of her Teeth were easily to be discerned through both sides of her Face, answering one side to the other like the notches in a Valley, excepting only two of them which stood quite out of her Mouth, in imitation of the Tushes of a wild Bore, or the Tooth of an Elephant. . . . . The Neck so strangely distorted, that her right shoulder was forced to be a supporter to her head, it being propt up by the help of her chin . . . . . Her Leggs very crooked and mishapen: The Toes of her feet looking towards her left side; so that it was very hard for any person (could she have stood up) to guess which road she intended to stear her course; because she never could look that way she resolved to go."

This lovely creature was put out to nurse at the charge of the parish. Miraculous and unpleasant incidents occurred around her cradle; her attendants were sometimes goaded to exertion by imps in the form of apes. One day Mother Shipton, cradle and all, were missing; sweet harmony from an unknown source was heard; finally the babe and cradle were found three feet up the chimney. As she grew old her foul fiend of a father visited her daily in the form of a cat, dog, bat, or hog. She was sent to school where, says the chronicler, "her Mistris began to instruct her, as other children, beginning with the Cris-cross-row as they call'd it, showing and naming onely three or four Letters, at first, but to the amazement and astonishment of her Mistris; she exactly pronounced every Letter in the Alphabet without teaching. Hereupon her Mistris, shewed her a Primmer, which she read awel at first sight, as any in the School, and so proceeded in any book was shown her."

Later still Mother Shipton began to tell fortunes, and to foretell the future. High and low flocked to her for information about their private affairs. According to Head she foretold the visit of Henry VIII to France, the death of Cardinal Wolsey, the downfall of the Catholic power in England, the death of the Duke of Somerset, also that of Lady Jane Grey, and various events in the reigns of Elizabeth, Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, and Charles II. Finally she died, honoured and esteemed, and a stone was erected to her memory at Clifton, about a mile from the city of York.

In very early times Mother Shipton figured in comedy. An old book in the British Museum Library has the following title page:—

"The Life of Mother Shipton. A new Comedy. As it was Acted Nineteen days together with great Applause. Folia Ampla Sybillæ Virg. Written by T. T.—London, Printed by and for Peter Lillicrap, and are to be sold by T. Passinger" [Title-page torn here] "the three Bibles on London Bridge." [Then in writing is added the date 1610, but the real date is about 1660.]

The comedy bears a resemblance here and there to Head's narrative. The scene is laid partly in "Nasebrough Grove in Yorkshire;" the heroine and prophetess is Agatha Shipton; no daughter Ursula appears in it at all. On page 15 a village crier is made to announce "O Yes, if any man or woman, in City, Town or Country can tell me tydings of Agatha Shipton, the daughter of Solomon Shipton Ditch digger lately deceased, let them bring word to the Cryer of the village, and they shall be well rewarded for their pains."

Agatha marries the devil, as in other versions of the story, but cheats him at the last:—

"[Soft Musick and an Angel descends with a Book.]

"Shipton despair not but in hope grow strong, Thou shalt find Mercy though thou hast done wrong; Road ore this book and in it thou shalt find The summe of thy aspire to free thy mind From fear, thy soul secure from harm Of any Devils! 'tis a happy charme!"

Pluto enters with "all the Devils," and finding Agatha Shipton released from their power exclaims:—

"Was ever Devil gull'd so "Well lets descend and all Hell shall howl This full fortnight for losse of Shipton's soul. "[Exeunt with horrid Musick]. "Shipton. So let them roare. Whilst I do all their Hellish Acts despise The higher powers make me truly wise."

Chapter 3

Chapter Third.

3em

The earliest known record at present in existence relating to Mother Shipton, is a pamphlet in good preservation, dated 1641, presented to the British Museum by King George III. The following is a verbatim reprint of the whole of it, printer's errors and all:—

"The Prophesie of Mother Shipton, In the Raigne of King Henry the Eighth. Fortelling the death of Cardinall Wolsey, the Lord Percy and others, as also what should happen in insuing times. London, Printed for Richard Lownds, at his shop adjoining to Ludgate, 1641." [This is the title-page.]

"The Prophecie of Mother Shipton, in the Raigne of King Henry eighth.

"When shee heard King Henry the eighth should be King, and Cardinall Wolsey should be at Yorke, shee said that Cardinall Wolsey should never come to Yorke with the King, and the Cardinall hearing, being angry, sent the Duke of Suffolke, the Lord Piercy, and the Lord Darcy to her, who came with their men disguised to the King's house neere Yorke, where leaving their men, they went to Master Besley to Yorke, and desired him to goe with them to Mother Shipton's house, where when they came they knocked at the doore, shee said Come in Master Besley, and those honourable Lords with you, and Master Besley would have put in the Lords before him, but she said, come in Master Besley, you know the way, but they doe not. This they thought strange that she should know them, and never saw them; and then they went into the house, where there was a great fire, and she bade them welcome, calling them all by their names, and sent for some Cakes and Ale, and they drunke and were very merry. Mother Shipton, said the Duke, if you knew what wee come about, you would not make us so welcome, and shee said the messenger should not be hanged; Mother Shipton, said the Duke, you said the Cardinall should never see Yorke; Yea, said shee, I said hee might see Yorke, but never come at it; But said the Duke, when he comes to Yorke thou shalt be burned; We shall see that, said shee, and plucking her Handkerchieffe off her head shee threw it into the fire, and it would not burne, then she tooke her staffe and turned it into the fire, and it would not burne, then she tooke it and put it on againe; Now (said the Duke) what meane you by this? If this had burn'd (said shee) I might have burned. Mother Shipton (quoth the Duke) what thinke you of me? My love, said she, the time will come when you will be as low as I am, and that's a low one indeed. My Lord Percy said, what say you of me? My Lord (said she) shooe your Horse in the quicke, and you shall doe well, but your body will bee buried in Yorke pavement, and your head shall be stolne from the barre and carried into France. Then said Lord Darcy, and what thinke you of me? Shee said, you have made a great Gun, shoot it off, for it will doe you no good, you are going to warre, you will paine many a man, but you will kill none, so they went away.

"Not long after the Cardinall came to Cawood, and going to the top of the Tower, hee asked where Yorke was, and how farre it was thither, and said that one had said hee should never see Yorke; Nay, said one, shee said you might see Yorke, but never come at it. He vowed to burne her when he came to Yorke. Then they shewed him York, and told him it was but eight miles thence; he said he will soone be there: but being sent for by the King, hee dyed in the way to London at Lecester of a laske; And Shipton's wife said to Master Besley, yonder is a fine stall built for the Cardinall in the Minster, of Gold, Pearle, and precious stone, goe and present one of the pillers to King Henry, and hee did so.

"Master Besley seeing these things fall out as shee had foretold, desired him to tell him some more of her prophesies; Master, said she, before that Owes Bridge and Trinitie Church meet, they shall build on the day, and it shall fall in the night, untill they get the highest stone of Trinitie Church, to be the lowest stone of Owes bridge, then the day shall come when the North shall rue it wondrous sore, but the South shall rue it for evermore; When Hares kinle on cold harth stones, and Lads shall marry Ladyes, and bring them home, then shall you have a yeare of pyning hungar, and then a dearth without Corne; A woful day shall be seen in England, a King and Queene, the first comming of the King of Scots shall be at Holgate Towne, but he shall not come through the barre, and when King of the North shall bee at London Bridge, his Tayle shall be at Edenborough; After this shall water come over Owes bridge, and a Windmill shall be set on a Tower, and an Elme-tree shall lye at at every mans doore, at that time women shall weare great hats and great bands, and when there is a Lord Major at Yorke let him beware of a stab. When two Knights shall fall out in the Castle yard, they shall never bee kindly all their lives after; When Colton Hagge hath borne seven yeares Crops of corne, seven yeares after you heare newes, there shall two Judges goe in and out at Mungate barre.

"Then, Warres shall begin in the spring, Much woe to England it shall bring: Then shall the Ladyes cry well-away, That ever we liv'd to see this day.

"Then best for them that have the least, and worst for them that have the most, you shall not know of the War over night, yet you shall have it in the morning, and and when it comes it shall last three yeares, betweene Cadron and Aire shall be great warfare, when all the world is as a lost, it shall be called Christs crost, when the battell begins, it shall be where Crookbackt Richard made his fray, they shall say, To warfare for your King, for halfe a crown a day, but stirre not (she will say) to warfare for your King, on paine on hanging, but stirre not, for he that goes to complaine, shall not come backe again. The time will come when England shall tremble and quake for feare of a dead man that shall bee heard to speake, then will the Dragon give the Bull a great snap, and when the one is downe they will go to London Towne; Then there will be a great battell betweene England and Scotland, and they will be pacified for a time, and when they come to Brammammore, they fight and are again pacified for a time; then there will be a great Battle at Knavesmore, and they will be pacified for a while; Then there will be a great battell betweene England and Scotland at Stoknmore; Then will Ravens sit on the Crosse and drinke as much bloud of the nobles, as of the Commons, then woe is mee, for London shall be destroyed for ever after; Then there shall come a woman with one eye, and she shall tread in many mens bloud to the knee, and a man leaning on a staffe by her, and she shall say to him, What art thou? and he shall say, I am King of the Scots, and she shall say, Goe with me to my house, for there are three Knights, and he will go with her, and stay there three days and three nights, then will England be lost; and they will cry twice of a day England is lost; Then there will be three knights in Petergate in Yorke and the one shall not know of the other; There shall be a childe born in Pomfret with three thumbes, and those three Knights will give him three Horses to hold, while they win England, and all the Noble bloud shall be gone but one, and they shall carry him to Sheriffe Nutton's Castle, six miles from Yorke, and he shall dye there, and they shall choose there an Earle in the field, and hanging their Horses on a thorne, And rue the time that ever they were borne, to see so much bloudshed; Then they will come to Yorke to besiege it, and they shall keepe out three dayes and three nights, and a penny loafe shall bee within the barre at halfe a crowne, and without the barre at a penny; And they will sweare if they will not yeeld, to blow up the Towne walls. Then they will let them in, and they will hang up the Major, Sheriffs and Aldermen, and they will goe into Crouch Church; there will be three Knights goe in, and but one come out againe; and he will cause Proclamation to be made, that any man may take House, Tower, or Bower for twentie one yeares, and whilest the world endureth, there shall never be warfare againe, nor any more Kings or Queenes, but the Kingdome shall be governed by three Lords, and then York shall be London; And after this shall be a white Harvest of corne gotten in by women. Then shall be in the North, that one woman shall say unto another, Mother I have seen a man to day, and for one man there shall be a thousand women, there shall be a man sitting upon St. James's Church hill weeping his fill; And after that a Ship come sayling up the Thames till it come against London, and the Master of the Ship shall weepe, and the Marriners shall aske him why hee weepeth, being he hath made so good a voyage, and he shall say; Ah what a goodly Citie this was, none in the world comparable to it, and now there is scarce left any house that can let us have drinke for our money.

"Vnhappy he that lives to see these days, But happy are the dead Shiptons wife sayes.

"

"FINIS.

"

" | "

Chapter 4

Chapter fourth.

3em

William Lilly, the astrologer, published "A Collection of Ancient and Moderne Prophesies. . . . . London, Printed for John Partridge and Henry Blunden, and are to be solde at the Signe of the Cock, in Ludgate Streete, and the Castle in Cornehill, 1645." This book contains what he calls "Shipton's Prophecy, after the most exact Copy," and this version having been published but four years later than the earliest record in the British Museum, it may or may not be the more trustworthy of the two, from the care professedly exercised by Lilly in the selection. I discovered Lilly's version in the course of my researches on this subject in the British Museum Library, and do not know that the authorities there or others were previously aware of its existence. It is not catalogued in the Museum with the Shipton literature.

Line by line I have compared these two earliest versions, and find that they agree tolerably closely. Lilly spells Besley's name "Beasley." "Mungate barre" Lilly spells "Walmgate bar," and rather more of Besley's narrative is set in type in verse. "Stocknmore," is rendered "Storktonmore." Here and there Lilly's version contains trifling additions not in the earlier pamphlet. For instance, it says that after Mother Shipton told Lord Percy that his body would be buried in York pavement and his head carried into France—"They all laughed saying, that would be a great lop between the Head and the Body."