EDITORS' NOTE.
The paper from which this document is printed is to be found in the first volume of the McDonald papers. It is such a census of the inhabitants of the colony as the historical student would like to see made out at several other periods of our colonial history. We can find no legal enactment requiring such a census to be taken, and no order to that effect, save in the Instructions to Governor Wyatt, dated 24th July, 1621, where, among other things, he is directed "To make a catalogue of the people in every plantation, and their conditions; and of deaths, marriages and christenings."—Hening, Vol. I., p. 115.
The entries are as brief as possible, no middle names are given, and foreigners are entered according to nationality, or not more than one name allowed them. Not the least curious is the small number of negroes. Rolfe states, "About the last of August (1619) came in a Dutch man of warre that sold us twenty Negors" (Smith, p. 126), and nearly five years after, when this census was taken, there were but twenty-two in the Colony.
| STATE PAPER OFFICE. [CONTENTS] Colonial. Volume 3, No. 2. | |
LISTS OF THE LIVINGE & DEAD IN VIRGINIA
Feb. 16th, 1623.
A LIST OF THE LIVINGE.