1-152-607 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Mother Shipton (1488-c1560) English witch and prophetess, 1804. She is depicted with her familiar, a monkey. Ursula Sonthiel Shipton lived in Yorkshire and told fortunes and made predictions concerning the future. Her best-known prophecy concerned Cardinal Wolsey. Wolsey was Archbishop of York, but his involvement with affairs of state in London meant that he never visited the diocese. Mother Shipton predicted that Wolsey would see York but never actually set foot in the city. In 1530 he travelled to York, and glimpsed the city in the distance, but was recalled to London by Henry VIII to face a charge of high treason. He died on the return journey. The first written edition of Mother Shipton's prophecies dates from 1641 however, long after Wolsey's death, so it is thought that the prophecy may have been a hoax penned by someone else.