In the memory of the present generation there was no Catholic house within the walls, and I believe it is not much longer since the Catholic servants within the sacred enclosure were obliged to go outside at night to sleep among their kinsfolk.

The English garrison did not multiply very fast.

In 1626 there were only 109 families in the city, of which five were families of soldiers liable to be removed.

Archbishop King stated that in 1690 the whole of the population of the parish, including the Donegal part, was about 700.
But the irrepressible Irish increased and multiplied around the walls with alarming rapidity.

The tide of native population rose steadily against the ramparts of exclusion, and could no more be kept back than the tide in the Foyle.