Most inhabitants of Settlement Ross lived outside the fort, while only Russian-American Company officials and visitors lived inside. Everyone near Fort Ross worked for the company. In the area outside the northwest stockade walls, lower-ranking Russian and Creole employees established a village complex of houses and gardens that gradually developed there. The term Creole designated a social class made up mainly of people descended from Russians married to Native Alaskan and Californian people, and this group formed a large part of the colony's inhabitants. The settlement's population varied over the years, and in 1836 Father Ioann Veniaminov recorded 260 people at Fort Ross: 154 male and 107 female, including 120 Russians, 51 Creoles, 50 Kodiak Aleuts, and 39 baptized Indians.