Wades have lived in Coggeshall and the surrounding villages for at least 500 years. Most spent their lives in Coggeshall, but a few travelled as far as Australia, though not always willingly. This book is the result of thirty years of research and tells their story, using wills, deeds, parish registers, workhouse papers and government records to give an insight into their lives and the societies they occupied. There are farmers and labourers, millers and Quakers, burglars and blacksmiths, weavers and witches, and even coal miners. Some were also members of the notorious Coggeshall Gang, who terrorised the area in the 1840s.