Ramsbury, Wiltshire

William Peacefull was a travelling preacher in the Shefford Circuit in the 1830s. His Journal recorded a Sunday evening service at Ramsbury when “a most awful storm of thunder and lightning and hail broke over the neighbourhood… the thunder-peals became so terrific that the chapel shook.” Sitting down, he announced, “I shall now leave the Almighty to preach the sermon.” Several of the most hardened and bitter persecutors were at the chapel door, and were driven inside by the storm. As the storm beat furiously against the windows, inside “all was quiet as death and solemn as the judgement” and “a tremendous spiritual shaking took place.” The service continued for three hours, awe fell upon the persecutors, and “three or four of those dreadfully wicked men” were converted that night.

The incident is recorded in I. Dorricott’s biography of William Peacefull, Memorials of an earnest Life.