Note 748 — Chapter V
Reading edition
The earliest notice we have of the population is from the Shaftesbury Papers, under date 20 January, 1672 [N. S.]: “By our records it appears that 337 men and women, 62 children or persons under 16 years of age, is the full number of persons who have arrived in this country in and since the first fleet out of England to this day.” Deducting for deaths and absences at the above date, there remained of the men 263 able to bear arms. Though the colony increased in wealth and importance, there was for many years but a slow increase in the number of white inhabitants.