Ursula Southeil
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Ursula Southeil (c. 1488 - 1561) (possibly Ursula Sonthiel), better known as Mother Shipton, was an English soothsayer and prophetess who is said to have made dozens of unusually accurate predictions, including the Great Plague of London, the Spanish Armada, and the Great Fire of London.
It is now generally accepted that the figure of Mother Shipton was largely a myth, and that the majority of her prophecies were composed by others in retrospect, after her death. Although her prophecies were apparently recorded in a series of diaries, the first publication of her work did not appear until 1641, eighty years after her death. The most notable book of her prophecies, edited by Richard Head, was published in 1684.
Head later admitted to having invented almost all Shipton's biographical details. He stated that she was born in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, in a cave now known as Mother Shipton's Cave, and was reputed to be hideously ugly - supposedly because she was fathered by the Devil. Head claimed that she married Toby Shipton, a local carpenter, near York in 1512 and is said to have told fortunes and made predictions throughout her life.
[edit] Prophecies
The most famous example of Mother Shipton's prophecies apparently foretells many aspects common to modern civilization and predicts the end of the world in 1881; however, it is now known to be a 19th century forgery, which did not appear in print until 1862:
- Carriages without horses shall go,
- And accidents fill the world with woe.
- Around the world thoughts shall fly
- Quick 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 even talk.
- In the air men shall be seen,
- In white, in black, and even green;
- Iron in the water shall float,
- As easily as a wooden boat.
- Gold shall be found and shown
- In a land that's not yet 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.
- Philip Cole will one day remove his coat at the dinner table.
