On the Sunday before the feast of St Martin in 1408, Richard Micklefield of Blyford made his testament which, being an ecclesiastical document, was written in Latin. In this, he left instructions for the disposition of his body and the distribution of provisions for his soul. The remainder of his movable goods he left to his wife, Katherine. His last will, written nearly a fortnight later, was dated the Saturday next before the feast of St Catherine, the Virgin. It was written in French, the vernacular of the ‘upper’ classes at that time, and it provided for his daughters’ marriage portions from his immovable goods or real estate. One hundred years later, on 6 August 1509, Richard Love of Westhall left a single document written in English catering for bequests of both movable and immovable property under the title ‘last will'. Micklefield's will shows the customary form of testament and last will in use at the beginning of the fifteenth century, as well as the language and the dating common at that time. Richard Love's will lies at the other end of a period during which the testament and last will were fused into one, with English being the preferred language. During this period, wills underwent modification, while being used increasingly by a society experiencing both social and religious change.The formulation of wills evolved over a long period.