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SHIPTON, MOTHER

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 989 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SHIPTON, See also:MOTHER , a See also:witch and prophetess who is supposed to have lived in See also:early Tudor times. There is no really See also:trust-worthy See also:evidence as to her ever having existed, but tradition has it that her See also:maiden-name was See also:Ursula Southill, Sowthiel or Southiel, and her parents were peasants, living near the Dropping Well, See also:Knaresborough, See also:Yorkshire. The date of her See also:birth is uncertain, but it is placed about 1486-1488, Her mother, See also:Agatha Southill, was a reputed witch, and Ursula from her See also:infancy was regarded by the neighbours as " the See also:Devil's See also:child." The girl's See also:appearance seems to have been such as to encourage superstitions. See also:Richard See also:Head in his See also:Life and See also:Death of Mother Shipton (1684) says, " the See also:body was of indifferent height, her head was See also:long, with See also:sharp fiery eyes, her See also:nose of an incredible and unproportionate length, having many crooks and turnings, adorned with many See also:strange pimples of See also:divers See also:colours, as red, See also:blue and dirt, which like vapours of See also:brimstone gave such a lustre to her affrighted spectators in the dead See also:time of the See also:night, that one of them confessed several times in my See also:hearing that her See also:nurse needed no other See also:light to assist her in her duties " Allowing for the absurdity of this See also:account, it certainly seems (if any reliance is to be placed on the so-called authorities) that the child was phenomenally See also:plain and deformed. While still at school she became known as a prophetess. When about twenty-four she married a builder of See also:York, Tobias Shipton. N.B.-The figures of the See also:official or See also:Board of See also:Trade returns, owing of See also:Lloyd's See also:Register (a body altogether distinct from the Corpora- to their inclusion of vessels below too tons, differ more or less widely with the rules of the Register or "See also:Book," which, moreover, are in (A) Wooden colonial vessels trading on the See also:Great Lakes of See also:North a See also:constant See also:state of scientific See also:evolution, may involve withdrawal of See also:America are not included. (B) These figures only include See also:sea- going vessels and See also:iron and See also:steel vessels trading on the Great Lakes. the See also:vessel's class, a result which would be fatal to her cheap in- (C) These figures do not include sailing vessels registered in See also:southern freights. With its skilled surveyors at See also:foreign, colonial and See also:home The following table illustrates the growth and progress of See also:British whole See also:world's See also:shipping, and Number and See also:Tonnage of Steamers and Sailing Vessels registered in the See also:United See also:Kingdom, Isle of See also:Man and foreign as well as British Channel Islands on 31st of See also:December of various Years. (Official Returns of the Board of Trade.) owners are fully alive to the importance of a strict compliance with the Book's requirements. Consequently, amongst the various factors making for improved construction and the greater safety of shipping, the beneficent See also:influence of Lloyd's Register occupies a foremost See also:place.

But the various factors or forces which make for the evolution of shipping may all be summed up under the word " competition," which is the mainspring of the machinery both of See also:

insurance and See also:classification. These factors operate, however, in different ways. Thus, while insurance and classification make most for See also:ships' increased safety, the See also:desire for profitable freights tends continually to their greater See also:size. But making also for increased size, and in addition for the many Improvements and inventions which result in luxury and comfort at sea, the vast influence of the ocean passenger is conspicuous. For, no longer regarded as an encumbrance to be made See also:room for on a See also:cargo See also:ship, the See also:modern See also:age of travel has rendered him a vast source of profit. The old position is reversed, and now fast-steaming hotels are built for ocean travellers, in which cargo occupies a secondary place, which only merchandise able to pay highly for the costly See also:advantage of a speedy voyage can afford to occupy. The growth of the passenger See also:traffic and the demand of travellers for routes the most See also:direct is, in turn, creating or developing ports which have small regard to cargo considerations, and involving the ports, both old and new, of the various maritime states in a keen and costly competition for the great passenger steamers. This competition is further enhanced by railway lines at rivalry for the See also:conveyance of the ocean passenger and for the more valuable merchandise able to pay high rates for See also:speed between ocean See also:port Steamers. Sailing Vessels. See also:Total. See also:Year. Tonnage.

Tonnage. Tonnage. No. No. - No. See also:

Net. See also:Gross. Net. Gross. Net. Gross. 1830 298 30,339 ..

18,876 2,171,253 .. 19,174 2,201,592 1840 771 87,928 21,883 2,680,334 •• 22,654 2,768,262 1850 1,187 168,474 • • 24,797 3,396,659 . . 25,984 3,565,133 186o 2,000 454,327 • • 25,663 4,204,360 .. 27,663 4,658,687 1870 3,178 1,112,934 • • 23,189 4,577,855 • • 26,367 5,690,789 188o 5,247 2,723,468 .. 19,938 3,851,045 .. 25,185 6,574,513 .. 1890 7,410 5,042,517 8,095,370 14,181 2,936,021 3,055,136 21,591 7,978,538 11,150,506 1900 9,209 7,207,610 11,816,924 10,773 2,096,498 2,247,228 19,982 9,304,108 14,064,152 1907 11,394 10,023,700 16,513,800 9,648 1,461,490 1,575,900 21,042 11,485,190 18,089,700 See also:

SHIRAZ Her most sensational prophecies had to do with See also:Cardinal See also:Wolsey, the See also:duke of See also:Suffolk, See also:Lord See also:Percy and other men prominent at the See also:court of See also:Henry VIII. There is a tradition that on one occasion the See also:abbot of See also:Beverley, anxious to investigate the See also:case for himself, visited Mother Shipton's cottage disguised, and that no sooner had he knocked than the old woman called out " Come in, Mr Abbot, for you are not so much disguised but the See also:fox may be seen through the See also:sheep's skin." She is said to have died at See also:Clifton, Yorkshire, in 1561, and was buried there or at Shipton. Her whole See also:history rests on the flimsiest authority, but her alleged prophecies have had from the 17th See also:century until quite recently an extraordinary hold on the popular See also:imagination. In See also:Stuart times all ranks of society believed in her, and referring to her supposed foretelling of the Great See also:Fire, See also:Pepys relates that when See also:Prince See also:Rupert heard, while sailing. up the See also:Thames on the loth of See also:October 1666, of the outbreak of the fire " all he said was, ` now Shipton's prophecy was out.' " One of her prophecies was supposed to have menaced See also:Yeovil, See also:Somerset, with an See also:earthquake and See also:flood in 1879, and so convinced were the peasantry of the truth of her prognostications that hundreds moved from their cottages on the See also:eve of the expected disaster, while spectators swarmed in from all quarters of the See also:county to see the See also:town's destruction. The See also:suggestion that Mother Shipton had foretold the end of the world in 1881 was the cause of the most poignant alarm throughout rural See also:England in that year, the See also:people deserting their houses, and spending the night in See also:prayer in the See also:fields, churches and chapels. This latter alleged prophecy was one of a See also:series of forgeries to which See also:Charles See also:Hindley, who reprinted in 1862 a garbled version of Richard Head's Life, confessed in 1873.

See Richard Head, Life and Death of Mother Shipton (See also:

London, 1684) ; Life, Death and the whole of the Wonderful Prophecies of Mother Shipton, the See also:Northern Prophetess (See also:Leeds, 1869); W. H. See also:Harrison, Mother Shipton investigated (London, 1881); _Town. of Brit. Archaeo. Assoc. xix. 308. Mother Shipton's and See also:Nixon's Prophecies, with an introduction by S. See also:Baker (London, 1797).

End of Article: SHIPTON, MOTHER

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