This document lists heads of households and, in this case, provides a count of spouses or widows, and children, without distinguishing their ages. From this we learn that the population had reached 1,228 by 1820, more than double the population of 1803. The census does allow us to assess what proportion of the1803 population were still resident in Sackville some 17 years later. Employing the simple analysis of identifying 1803 heads of households or their widows, it appears that two-thirds of these families were still resident in the community in 1820. If it were possible to include sons and daughters of the 1803 population the picture of continuity would be even greater, but this cannot be done reliably as these individuals were not specifically named in the 1803 census. Putting aside the likelihood that some families disappeared entirely through death, the picture drawn from this simple analysis is that rates of geographic mobility and transience were surprisingly low, especially when compared with other parts of North America in this period where the so-called “free land frontier” produced a remarkably mobile and transient population. Nevertheless it is also the case that newcomers had been arriving in the area in considerable numbers during the intervening period. In 1803 there were 62 different surnames represented in the census; by 1820 there were 91 new surnames evident in the population. It is difficult to characterize the geographic origins of these new families. Some surnames such as O’Daniel, Mahoney, Kinnear, Cahill, Delaney, Doyle, McFee, McGuin, McInerney, Donavan, and Mahan indicate Irish origins. There were a handful of Scottish names but the greater number suggest an English origin.

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