The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Shipton, Mother

SHIPTON, shĭp'tȯn, Mother, an English prophetess about whose existence there seems to be no certainty, while there is no doubt that many of the sayings attributed to her were fabricated by others. According to S. Baker, who published Mother Shipton's pretended prophecies in 1797, she was born near Knaresborough, Yorkshire, in July 1488, and baptized as Ursula Southiel. She died, according to the same authority, at over 70 years of age, but it was not until 1641 that a pamphlet appeared containing some of her alleged predictions. In 1645 all her prophecies were considered as having been fulfilled. In 1862 a prediction was made, with Mother Shipton's name appended to it, that the world would come to an end in 1881. It caused some excitement among the ignorant.