Thomas Jollie & False Accusations

Thomas Jollie was the Congregationalist minister at Altham and then Wymondhouses. The following appears in his notebook from 1684:

Dangers threatning from the fals accusation of a poor woman 

in her passion and wanting an opportunity for a church-meeting, 

I sett apart a day in the beginning of the nth m [ninth month]. for 

prayer and fasting in my family, calling in the assistance of the 

next family to us. The answer of the prayers of the day afor- 

sayd did hereupon soon appear, for the lord did soe awe the spirit 

of my accuser when shoe came before autority that shee durst 

not stand to what shee before had sayd and promised to swear.

Evidently, a woman had made up accusations against the minister, which were perhaps of a sexual nature. The authorities would be only too pleased to seize upon another opportunity to arrest and imprison the man of God. He therefore called a prayer meeting, which coincided with his own desire to meet together anyway. The Lord answered their prayers, as the accuser lost her nerve when it came to swearing her testimony before the magistrates.

Note that Mr Jollie’s response to the false accusation was not to challenge or berate the lying fantasist but to throw himself at the feet of the God of Truth.