Within her lifetime she had several premonitions about some of the largest historical events to take place in England, such as the Great Fire of London and the Spanish Armada. After passing away in 1561, aged seventy-three, she remained an important local phenomenon in her hometown of Knaresborough and the remnants of a cave in which she lived, situated close to the Petrifying Well, can be visited.
Mother Shipton began her life in this cave in the Knaresborough woodland in 1488. She was born during a dark and stormy night, the daughter of a fifteen-year-old called Agatha who named her only daughter Ursula.
As soon as she was born, her life would be the subject of scrutiny and controversy, particularly when her mother refused to reveal the identity of Ursula’s father.
Within no time at all, speculation about this mysterious child began to circulate with later sources describing the child’s appearance as ugly, deformed and witch-like from birth.
Her destitute young mother was thought to be herself an orphan and lacked the ability to support her daughter.
Whilst she refused to give details of the father, she became ostracised from the local community and thus Ursula too, was shunned and the two desperate souls were forced into the forest as pariahs.
Some believed that the child’s conception was the work of the Devil, with many accusing Agatha too of being a witch...<<<Read More>>>...
