There has been dispute among social historians about whether only the more prosperous in village society were involved in religious practice. By examining the taxation records of sufficiently large groups of dissenters and church wardens, this book presents a factual solution. It also uses economic sources, and information on communications and population mobility, in essays that are not normally grouped with ecclesiastical material. This is a book that breaks new ground, offering fresh material for ecclesiastical, cultural, demographic and economic historians of the early modern period.