 In September 1623 , another ship arrived carrying settlers destined to refound the failed colony at Weymouth , and they stayed temporarily at Plymouth . In March 1624 , a ship arrived bearing a few additional settlers and the first cattle . A 1627 division of cattle lists 156 colonists divided into twelve lots of thirteen colonists each . Another ship arrived in August 1629 , also named the Mayflower , with 35 additional members of the Leiden congregation . Ships arrived throughout the period between 1629 and 1630 carrying new settlers , though the exact number is unknown ; contemporaneous documents claimed that , by January 1630 , the colony had almost 300 people . In 1643 , the colony had an estimated 600 males fit for military service , implying a total population of about 2 @,@ 000 . By 1690 , on the eve of the dissolution of the colony , the estimated total population of Plymouth County , the most populous , was 3 @,@ 055 people . It is estimated that the entire population of the colony at the point of its dissolution was around 7 @,@ 000 . For comparison , it is estimated that more than 20 @,@ 000 settlers had arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1630 and 1640 ( a period known as the Great Migration ) , and the English population of all New England was estimated to be about 60 @,@ 000 by 1678 . Plymouth was the first colony in the region but , by the time of its annexation , it was much smaller than Massachusetts Bay Colony . 
