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In June 1624, King James I assumed responsibilty for the colony of Virginia after he dissolved the Virginia Company of London. He ordered Virginia's leaders to make a record of the colony's inhabitants and their provisions. This census-known as the 1624/5 Muster-is the first comprehensive account of households in British North America. In addition, it is the only extant census for seventeenth-century Virginia. A 1623/4 list of the colony's habitants noted who survived the 1622 Indian attack and where they lived. This list did not include details about the relations among the settlers or their ages.
The 1624/5 Muster is a house-to-house survey that contains information about the location of households in Virginia, the individuals in each household and the ties that connected the colony's early residents to one another. The census-takers also made note of each household's provisions, buildings, boats, arms and ammunition, and livestock. The names of individuals who died during 1624 is part of the muster.
Links
- 1624/5 Muster Databases
- Musters of the Inhabitants in Virginia 1624/1625 chapters, pages 201 thru 265, which lists the muster captain, and what ship the individual arrived on
- 1,033 Early Virginia Pioneers, from 1624 records
- The First Black Americans: A group of enslaved Africans changed Jamestown and the future of a nation
- The Living and the Dead in Virginia on February 16, 1623
- Jamestown City, VA Census - 1624