ESTIMATING PRECENSUS POPULATIONS: A METHOD SUGGESTED AND APPLIED TO THE TOWNS OF RHODE ISLAND AND PLYMOUTH COLONIES IN 1689.

Estimates of both Colonial Period population sizes and densities as of about 1689 for areas of eight to eighty square miles in Plymouth and Rhode Island colonies are possible by coordinating local records and by recognizing that the Bristol estimates suggest 1) smaller populations for Rhode Island and especially its chief Colonial center, Newport, than have been assumed, and 2) a kind of mathematical ordering of population densities in the region as a whole. Should the ratios prove to be applicable outside the Narragansett region, it may be possible to estimate population of the many other places whose size of militia and date of settlement are known. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]