Attitudes to death changed dramatically: from bequests to the Church for the benefit of the Soul to the Victorian belief in their 'heavenly home'. Communities faced death from a multiplicity of causes: epidemics, violence, accidents, Visitations of God. Before the Welfare State the consequences could be dire, especially for the poor with the death of the breadwinner: poverty and destitution often followed. A study of Wills, however, also reveals a marked increase in prosperity: from leaving just one or two sheep in 1400 to many thousands of pounds in 1900. This book traces how the inhabitant of one market town coped.