I am not aware of any population count for 1650. The problem of getting a count even approximating accurate is the lack of tax list, complete ships' passenger lists, or even church membership lists for the period. Moreover, the court of Fort Orange and Beverwijck had not yet been established (it was in April, 1952), so one is left with what can be divined from the Rensselaerswijck court records and the Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts. Even then there is a great deal left unrecorded.
In my dissertation ("A Civil Society: Court and Community in Beverwijck, New Netherland, 1652-1664", 1993) I estimated that the population of Beverwijck in 1660 was probably 1,000. This was based on an arduous count of names from court records, land records, wills and any available primary material. Dealing with Dutch names is also complicated by variations in spelling, the use of the patronymic, and diminutives. Similar names required checking handwriting, death notices and numerous other records to determine if one is dealing with one or two (or in some cases, three) different people. As I noted in the dissertation, the work on population needs much more work to refine the statistics, if indeed it is possible to come close. And I am not sure that I could define my 1993 count today, as I know much more than I did when I wrote the dissertation. But I suspect it would be close.
Martha Dickinson Shattuck
David Minor wrote:
List members,I'm looking for the approximate population of Albansy in the year 1650.
TIA,
David MinorDavid Minor
Eagles Byte Historical Research
Pittsford, New York
716 264-0423
[log in to unmask]To be put on the mailing list for the weekly TimeMaster radio scripts, as
well as news of updates to my homepage, e-mail me at the address above.includes NYNY, a series of timelines covering New York City and State, from
approximately 1,100,000,000 BC to 1990 AD."I would undertake to supply your demands if your generosity is equal to them."
-John Bartram, U. S. naturalist