Character
The Cheshire Prophet
He foretold he would be starved, and was.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Ploughland around old Over
- Legend from
- Chapbook tradition
- Best time
- Any
- Tone
- Ominous
Don't send me to court, cried the ploughboy. They will starve me there. And they did.
Robert Nixon was a legendary prophet of Cheshire, and many accounts of him contradict each other. One says he was born around 1467 on a farm in Over leased from Vale Royal Abbey. Another places him in the reign of James I. While ploughing he is said to have cried 'Now Richard! Now Harry!', and so foretold the outcome of the Battle of Bosworth. Summoned to court, he wailed that he would be 'clemmed', that is, starved to death. He was locked away for safekeeping and forgotten, and was found dead of hunger, just as he had predicted. Chapbooks of his prophecies sold widely for centuries afterwards.