 A searcher was entitled to charge a small fee from relatives for each death they reported, and so habitually the parish would appoint someone to the post who would otherwise be destitute and would be receiving support from the parish poor rate.Typically, this meant searchers would be old women who were illiterate, might know little about identifying diseases and who would be open to dishonesty.Searchers would typically learn about a death either from the local sexton who had been asked to dig a grave or from the tolling of a church bell.