DESCRIPTION:

This military census of Rhode Island is an enumeration of all males over sixteen both able and unable to bear arms. In addition, the census was to provide the names of men already in the state militia or in Continental battalions, and to identify transients, Indians, Negroes, and Quakers. The result is a town-by-town list of about 8,500 Rhode Island men--complete except for the enumerations of six towns which are missing from the records in the State Archives. The records given here in full are for the remaining twenty-three towns.