The Soame family members were not the only benefactors of the villagers. The Town House was bequeathed to the poor of the village by Josiah Houghton in 1695 and in the eighteenth century was recorded as being 'let to three different persons as yearly tenants at rents amounting to £4 per annum and the remainder of it is occupied by paupers'. This charity exists today, no longer as accommodation, but as an annual sum of money derived from land rent that is distributed amongst the pensioners every Christmas.

Another contemporary figure was John Daye, parson of Little Thurlow, whose last will and testament was published on the 28th September 1627. It seems that he was a member of the enormous Daye family (26 children!) of neighbouring Little Bradley, and his father John Daye (d 1584) was one of the first printers and Master of the Stationers' Company. As one of the early printers, John Daye was famous as the first printer to print music and to use an Anglo Saxon type face. His son, John Daye, was a Bachelor of Divinity at Oriel College, Oxford, and his will describes his writing on the psalms and the one hundred and ninety lectures he had delivered on the subject. He also decreed that every householder in the village be given a copy of his own book, Daye's Descant on David's Psalms.

It is fortunate that records also exist for the daily life of the parish for this period. The Manor Court rolls for Great Thurlow and the Parish book also survive, providing insight into the misdemeanours of the villagers, as well as the payments to less fortunate parishioners. Ann Abbot in 1757 appeared to have ploughed up some of the Common field and was ordered to seed it for grazing before the 1st August. In 1791 records show payments for nursing care, provision and mending of clothes and the purchase of shoes. The Day Book also contains details of the arrangements that were made for the funerals of parishioners and the vigils that were set up in advance of the burial. Indications are that villagers then as now lived to a ripe old age: in 1710 records show that John Mills aged 82 years died, having been clerk of the Parish of Little Thurlow for about 50 years; and in 1714 Mary Wisbitch died on the 14th May, aged 86 years.

Extracts from the Day Book Great Thurlow 1791 1 May Give the widow Mitson 6d Extrodney being ill 0  6d   Give Skiltons wife on account of her child being ill 0  6d   A journey to Ketton to Dr Syers concerning the Disturbbance at Peper Hall 1s  6d 28 April A journey to Ketton with John Parmenter and give him one shilling and paid him for his exammynation 2s  0d 30 May For fetching Widow Tilsons wood 4s  0d 31 May Give John Parmenter from where he came from to bear his expenses back 11s  6d 26 June Paid Dame Burlin for nursing Mitsons wife 4s  0d 2 July Paid Master Collins for a pair of bretches of Wm Newman 7s  6d 16 July Paid Master Collins for mending of the bretches of Wm Newman 1s  6d July Give to Lydia Scotcher to help bye pair of shoes for her child 1s  0d 7 July Paid Thos Maleling for shaven of Thos Rowlerson half a year 5s  0d 29 October Paid Dame Rowlerson for nursing Guymers wife 4s  0d 6 November Give Thomas Martin for a doctors bill 10s  6d 13 December Paid for a waistcoat for the boy Sparbes 3s  9d January 1793 Vestry Meeting at the Crown 13s  9d 31 March Mr Jones a bill paid Jonas for his horse to bury 5s  0d October Burying Brands child 4s  0d   For a coffin 3s  6d 27 October Paid for a waistcoat for the boy Rowlerson 5s  0d   smock frock 4s  6d