Sorry to bring back this old topic, but I just want to clear up on how to do this the right way. Since I did this years ago. As already said, change every TOWNPERSON to SHOPKEEP in ide.img. Then open population.dat in Triggers and exchange every the number of TOWNPERSON to SHOPKEEP in the places you want to spawn them. Then set TOWNPERSON as 0. If you understand what I'm trying to say.
You'll get every townsperson to spawn anywhere in town. And it makes the town feel more alive.