Sorry I can't help with Alfriston in 17C, but this sort of info sometimes turns up in parish records. I found an informative and evocative description of parish life in 18C Laughton in the Churchwarden's Accounts,1707-1895: East Sussex Record Office, PAR409/9. It includes: 11 April 1741 "time of smallpox". Also mentions my family members by name, caring for a sick man, laying him out, "pd for Round Frock and payer Briches for Robt Medhurst, 5/6", etc. - anything that the parish paid for. A survey of such records would be a good subject for a research project? Any volunteers?! Barbara Sanders