From The Gazetteer of the State of New Hampshire (in three parts), 
compiled from the best authorities, by Eliphalet Merrill and the Late 
Phinehas Merrill, Esq.,
Printed by C. Norris & Co. , Exeter, NH, ©1817, pg 45,

Part I - General View

Progressive Population -  The earliest census or authenticated estimate of the population 
of this state, which we have been able to find was made in 1680, when this territory was 
under the British government.  The province, as it was then called, then contained only 
four towns, viz. Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter, and Hampton.  The number of qualified 
voters at that time, were in Portsmouth 71, in Dover 61, in Hampton 57, and in Exeter 20, 
making a total of 209.  No regular estimate of the whole population was made before the 
year 1749, at which time, the province was under the immediate government of Gov. 
Wentworth.
	The progressive population of the state since that time is as follows; in 1749, it 
amounted to 30,000; in 1767, it was 52,000; in 1775, it was 82,000; in 1790 it was 
141,000; in 1800, it was 183,000; and in 1810, it was 214,460, of whom 37,200 were 
legal voters.
	The advance of population therefore in ten years was 30,602.  This must have been 
the natural increase, because New Hampshire does not gain so much by emigration from 
her sister states as she loses by emigration to Vermont, New York and the western 
country.  Where land can be obtained at so cheap a rate, and the means of subsistence are 
so easy as in  the new settled parts of our state, much encouragement is necessarily given 
to early marriage, and indeed an unmarried man, of the age of thirty, is rarely to be found 
in our country towns.
	Our young farmers, having cleared a small tract of land and provided the means of 
present accommodation, soon experience the truth of the old adage, that “it is not good 
for man to be alone.”  Having the prospect of immediate support before their eyes, they 
feel no dread of early connexions.  Indeed a female soon becomes the indispensable 
partner of agricultural labor in our new settlements, where the land is brought to pasture 
and the business of a dairy has commenced, over which it is the province of women to 
preside, and with whom it is at once an object of interest and ambition.



Submitted by T.C. Parziale 5/30/00
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