Gervase the Swineherd, of Grimwash-on-Sea

Age 12: the tallage came round again, earlier than last year.

Age 13: fever took both your parents in a season. The parish took you in, grudgingly.

Age 14: a year of no illness at all. You hardly knew what to do.

Age 15: a saint's day meant no work and actual meat. You were briefly, piously content.

Age 16: married well, by the standards of the parish, which are low.

Age 17: walked through a plague year untouched. Nobody knows why.

Age 18: a winter fever laid you low, but the fire held it off.

Age 19: a fat harvest. Ate well, for once.

Age 23: a year of no illness at all. You hardly knew what to do.

Age 25: a neighbour swore falsely against you at the hundred court. You remember his name.

Age 26: a parish upbringing is a hungry one. You learned to make a turnip last a week.

Age 29: a saint's day meant no work and actual meat. You were briefly, piously content.

Age 30: caught the flux and, unusually, recovered.

Age 31: made pilgrimage to a shrine and bought a small lead badge to prove it.

Age 35: a fat harvest. Ate well, for once.

Age 36: died of a fever that the physician could not name.

Survived by Agnes and the pig.