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THE
HISTORY
OF
MOTHER SHIPTON, &c.
CHAP. I.
Of her Birth and Parentage.
MOTHER SHIPTON, as all hiſtories agree, was a Yorkſhire woman. The particular place was very much diſputed, becauſe ſeveral towns have pretended to the honour of her birth; but the moſt credible and received opinion aſcribes it to Knareſborough, near the the dropping well, in the ſaid county. Concerning her pedigree, or parentage, there is likewiſe very various reports; ſome ſay her father was a Necromancer, and that he had ſkill in the black art, which thereby became entailed on her by inheritance; but the