"Besides the Fort and the Black Town, the city encompassed ten villages acquired by the East India Company from local rulers, several other villages created by Company officials and numerous small hamlets. The population in the early nineteenth century was estimates at 236,500. Half that number resided within Black Town, another thirty thousand in Triplicane, and the remainder in dispersed settlements whose population ranged from a few hundred to several thousand. The 1822 census listed thirty-five villages within Madras, excluding Black Town and hamlets of low caste and “Untouchable” groups, and that 1871 Census identified fifty-eight villages within the Municipal boundary."