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(“OLD STYLE” VS. “NEW STYLE”)
(*cue “centuries and centuries and centuries and centuries…”*)
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*a calendar is a ‘system’ of organizing ‘days’ for [‘social’ / ‘religious’ / ‘commercial’ / ‘administrative’ purposes]*
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(this is done by giving names to ‘periods of time’, typically ‘days’, ‘weeks’, ‘months’, and ‘years’)
(a ‘date’ is the designation of a single, specific ‘day’ within such a ‘system’)
(a ‘calendar’ is also a ‘physical record’ (often ‘paper’) of such a ‘system’)
(a ‘calendar’ can also mean a list of ‘planned events’, such as a ‘court calendar’ or a ‘partly’ or ‘fully’ chronological list of documents, such as a ‘calendar of wills’)
(‘periods’ in a ‘calendar’ (such as ‘years’ and ‘months’) are usually, though not necessarily, synchronized with the cycle of the ‘sun’ or the ‘moon’)
(the most common type of ‘pre-modern’ calendar was the ‘lunisolar calendar’, a ‘lunar calendar’ that occasionally adds 1 ‘intercalary month’ to remain synchronized with the ‘solar year’ over the long term)
(the ‘calendar’ in most widespread use today is the ‘gregorian calendar’, introduced in the 16th century by ‘Pope Gregory XIII’ as a modification of the ‘julian calendar’, which was itself a modification of the ancient ‘roman calendar’)
(the term calendar itself is taken from calendae, the term for the first day of the month in the ‘roman calendar’, related to the verb calare “to call out”, referring to the “calling” of the ‘new moon’ when it was first seen)
(the latin word calendarium meant “account book, register” (as ‘accounts’ were settled and ‘debts’ were collected on the ‘calends’ of each ‘month’)
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(the ‘latin’ term was adopted in ‘old french’ as calendier and from there in ‘middle english’ as calender by the 13th century (the spelling calendar is ‘early modern english’)
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*CALENDAR (NEW STYLE) ACT 1750*
(24 Geo. II c.23), also known as Chesterfield’s Act or (in American usage) the British Calendar Act of 1751,
The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain.
Its purpose was for Great Britain and the British Empire to adopt the Gregorian calendar.
The Act also rectified other dating anomalies, notably the start of the legal year.
The Act elided eleven days from September 1752.
It ordered that religious feast days be held on their traditional dates – f
or example, Christmas Day remained on 25 December.
(Easter is a moveable feast:
the Act specifies how its date should be calculated.)
It ordered that civil and market days be moved forward in the calendar by eleven days – for example the quarter days on which rent was due, salaries paid and new labour contracts agreed – so that no-one should gain or lose by the change and that markets match the agricultural season;
it is for this reason that the UK tax year ends on 5 April, being eleven days on from the original quarter day of 25 March.
Provisions[edit]
In summary, the Act has four key elements:
It acknowledges the practical difficulties created for England because by its traditional practice of beginning the year on 25 March, when common practice among its people, as well as legal and common usage in Scotland (since 1600) and most of Europe, was to begin the year on 1 January. Accordingly, the Act provided that “all His Majesty’s Dominions” would cease this tradition from the end of December 1751, such that the following day would be 1 January 1752.
It acknowledges that the Julian calendar still in use in Great Britain and its Dominions had been found to be inaccurate, and that most of Europe had already adopted an (unnamed) revised calendar.[a] The Julian calendar was eleven days ahead of this ‘New Style’ calendar. With this act, therefore, Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar (implicitly but not explicitly). To do so, it ordered that eleven days be removed from September 1752 and that centennial years no longer be leap years unless divisible by 400.
An annex to the Act gives a method to calculate the dates of Easter by varying slightly the traditional method of the Church of England, rather than by adopting the method of Pope Gregory XIII.[b]
It finally settles the position of leap day as 29 February.[c]
Other clauses[edit]
Section 3 of the Act provides that fixed feast days continue to be observed on the same calendar date, whereas movable feasts (whose dates depend on the date of Easter) followed from the new rules for its calculation. Religious feast days were held to their nominal dates (for example Michaelmas, on 29 September) but Section 1 also provides that the dates of ‘fairs and marts’ traditionally associated with those feasts (but in reality tied to the seasons), be moved in the calendar by discounting eleven days. Thus, for example, the Michaelmas hiring and mop fairs moved to 10 October and became known as Old Michaelmas Day. Christmas Day was still celebrated on 25 December and an ‘Old Christmas’ was not formalised: nevertheless, some communities were reluctant to accept the change (see “Religious dissent”, below).
The Act includes various measures to prevent injustice and other problems. For example, section 6, echoing a rule in Gregory’s reform, provides that the date on which rents and other debts are due must be deferred by 11 days. In addition the Act says a person does not reach a particular age, including especially the age of majority, until the complete number of years have passed.
Background and context[edit]
Start of the year[edit]
A memorial plaque giving the date of John Etty’s death in January as both 1708 and 1709.
The introduction to the Act states succinctly the rationale for a change the start of the year in England (and Wales) from 25 March to 1 January.[1] This is that the March date had been found to have many inconveniences: that it differs from the date (1 January) used by Scotland, by other neighbouring countries, and by ordinary people throughout the kingdom;[d] as a consequence mistakes are frequently made in the dates of deeds and other writings.[e]
In his biographies of the Caesars, Suetonius wrote that the Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar in AUC 709 (45 BC), continued the old Roman practice of beginning the year with January.[2] Later Christians felt 1 January had no religious significance and wanted to begin the year on a more appropriate date.[3] No legislation or Papal Bull ordered this change but gradually Christmas Day, 25 December, became popular in England from the 6th century.[4] In 1067, New Year’s Day reverted to 1 January but in 1155 it was changed to 25 March,[f] where it remained until changed by this Act.[5] It is the continuation of the Roman calendar layout beginning with January that eventually led European countries in the 16th century to return to a year start on 1 January. Examples include the Venetian Republic (1522), France (1564, nearly 20 years before the Gregorian reform) and Scotland (1600).[6] By 1750 most of Europe had made this change and the continuing English practice became a source of confusion for English merchants and diplomats and their counterparts, when dealing across the Channel or with Scotland.
An informal system of ‘dual dating’ had developed to help reduce confusion.[g] For example, a date written as 21 January 1719/20 (or 17+19/20) means both a date of 21 January 1719 (where the year began on 25 March 1719, as in England) and a date of 21 January 1720 (where the year began on 1 January 1720, as in Scotland). These notations both refer to the same day in the real world.
The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 removed the difficulty by changing the start of the year to 1 January for England and Wales and the colonies,[h] by discarding the Julian calendar, and by dropping eleven days to synchronise the calendars. The change applied “after the last day of December 1751″[8][i] The legal year which began on 25 March 1751 became a short year of 282 days, running from 25 March 1751 to 31 December 1751. The following year began as 1 January 1752 (New Style).
Eleven days’ difference between calendars the change to the Gregorian calendar[edit]
An image of the papal bull or bulletin. A machine-readable version is available at that article.
The reason given to discard both the traditional calendar and the eleven-day accumulated difference was a religious one. The introduction to the Act explains that, due to the inaccuracy in the Julian calendar, the date of spring equinox (which determines the date of Easter) had drifted by about eleven days from its date at the time of the First Council of Nicaea, 21 March,[j] and that this drift would continue unless the calendar was corrected and the eleven days’ difference deleted.
The Gregorian calendar was a reform of the Julian calendar, instituted by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 by a papal bull Inter gravissimas. The intention expressed by the text of this bull was to reset the calendar so that celestial events critical for the calculation of Easter dates – the March equinox and its adjacent full moons – would be back in what the bull calls “their proper places” and would be prevented from being moved away again. The divergence had happened because the Julian calendar adds a leap year every four years but this process adds about three more days every four hundred years than the earth’s orbit requires. By 1582, the error had accumulated to the extent that the calendar date of the spring equinox had moved from 21 March by about ten days.[k]
Gregory’s reform removed ten days from the old Julian calendar, thus resetting 21 March to coincide with the equinox.[9] The reform also provided a new method for calculating leap years so that the error would not recur. Under the Julian calendar a leap year fell every four years; that is, when the year was exactly divisible by four. The additional Gregorian rule added the exception that a centennial year would not be a leap year unless it was also exactly divisible by 400. Section 2 of the Act replicates this algorithm. By 1750, almost all countries in Western Christendom except Britain and its empire had adopted Gregory’s reform.[10]
According to Gregory’s rule, the year 1600 was a leap year but 1700 was not – but it remained a leap year under the Julian calendar. This meant that when Britain reformed the calendar in the 1750s, the divergence between the calendars had reached eleven days. Section 1 of the Act corrects this divergence by providing that Wednesday 2 September 1752 be followed by Thursday 14 September 1752.
Date of Easter[edit]
The Annex to the Act gave rules for to be used to establish the date of Easter, to replace the previous rules in the Book of Common Prayer to be used by the Church of England. However, with the potential for religious strife in mind, the promoters of the Bill downplayed the Roman Catholic connection. The Parliamentary drafters of the Act, and of the associated text to revise the Book of Common Prayer, were careful to minimise the impact on religious sensitivities by expressing the revision in terms consistent with the traditions of the Church of England.[11] They had reason to be cautious: the Government of Elizabeth I had first attempted in 1583/1584 to reform the calendar but the proposal was rejected by the Anglican hierarchy of the day, because of its Popish origins.[12] Again, when in 1699 Sir Isaac Newton renewed the campaign to correct the calendar, his proposal foundered on doctrinal objections.[13] The Annex established a computation for the date of Easter that achieved the same result as Gregory’s rules, without actually referring to him.[14] The algorithm, set out in the Book of Common Prayer as required by the Act, includes calculation of the Golden Number and the Sunday Letter, which (in the Easter section of the Book) were presumed to be already known. The Annex includes the definition: “Easter-day (on which the rest depend) is always the first Sunday after the Full Moon, which happens upon, or next after the Twenty-first Day of March. And if the Full Moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter-day is the Sunday after”.[15] The Annexe subsequently uses the terms ‘Paschal Full Moon’ and ‘Ecclesiastical Full Moon’, making it clear that they only approximate to the real full moon.[16]
In his The Book of Almanacs (1851), Augustus de Morgan (Professor of Mathematics at University College, London), commented on the definition of Easter in the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750. He noted that the body of the Act wrongly stated the way Easter was calculated but that the annexed Tables correctly set out the dates for Easter as prescribed by Pope Gregory.[17]
Leap day[edit]
Until the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer, England had followed the practice of the early Julian calendar period of creating a leap day by having two successive days numbered 24 February.[18] The change (to add the leap day at the end of February) was not a statute of Parliament but it was authorised by the Act of Uniformity 1662.[19] The Book of Common Prayer 1662 included a calendar which used entirely consecutive day counting and showed leap day as falling on 29 February.
Section 2 of the Calendar (New Style) Act contains the new Gregorian rule for determining leap years in the future and also makes it quite clear that leap years contain 366 days.[l] In addition, the calendar at the end of this Act confirms that leap day falls on 29 February.[20]
Passage through Parliament[edit]
A portrait painting of the Earl of Chesterfield, wearing clothes typical of a mid-eighteenth century British aristocrat.
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Today, a major reform of this kind would be a government measure, but this was a Private Member’s Bill,[21] proposed in the House of Lords on 25 February 1750 [8 March 1751 Gregorian] by Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield.[22] The proposition was seconded in detail by Lord Macclesfield,[23] whom Chesterfield described as one of the greatest mathematicians and astronomers in Europe.[24][m] Macclesfield had contributed the technical knowledge underlying the reform with support from Martin Folkes (then President of the Royal Society) and James Bradley (the astronomer royal).[25] Bradley devised the revised Easter tables. The Bill was drafted by Peter Davall, a barrister of the Middle Temple, who was also an astronomer and formerly Secretary to the Royal Society.[26] The Prime Minister, the Duke of Newcastle, was opposed to the Bill and asked Chesterfield to abandon it,[27] but the Government did not block it and the Bill passed in the Lords without further debate.[28]
The Bill was passed by the House of Commons on 13 May [N.S. 24 May] 1751,[29] and received royal assent on 22 May [N.S. 2 June] 1751.[30]
Title of the Act[edit]
The formal title of the Act is “An act for regulating the commencement of the year; and for correcting the calendar now in use”.[27]
It was not the practice in the 18th century to give brief titles to Acts of Parliament, now known as their ‘Short Titles’. The old long titles had proved increasingly inconvenient,[n] and it later became the custom to give acts informal short titles. The Short Titles Act 1896 regularised this and retrospectively gave short titles to old statutes that were still live.[32] In particular, the 1896 Act conferred the short title “Calendar (New Style) Act 1750” on this Act.
Date of the Act[edit]
It may seem strange to modern readers that the Calendar (New Style) Act has the date of 1750 when Royal Assent was given on 22 May 1751. The reason is that, before the Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793, the date on which a Bill became law was the first day of the Parliamentary Session in which they passed, unless the measure contained a provision to the contrary.[33]
The calendar reform bill was introduced in the session which began on 17 January 1750 [N.S. 28 January 1751]. Hence the Short Titles Act 1896 assigned the calendar reform to 1750.
Territorial scope of the Act[edit]
The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 applied to those countries and dominions in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America that belonged or were subject to the crown of Great Britain.
Wales[edit]
After the conquest of Wales by Edward I of England, English law was increasingly applied. Various acts passed by the Parliament of England between 1535 and 1542 consolidated the combination of England and Wales as a single jurisdiction. Nevertheless, before the Wales and Berwick Act 1746, it was often uncertain whether a reference to ‘England’ in legislation of the London Parliament included Wales. The 1746 Act provided that in all legislation, past and future,[o] the word ‘England’ was deemed to include Wales and thus the Calendar Act applied to Wales despite it not being named explicitly.
Scotland[edit]
The Kingis Majestie and Lordis of His Secreit Counsall undirstanding that in all utheris weill governit commoun welthis and cuntreyis the first day of the yeir begynis yeirlie upoun the first day of Januare commonlie callit New Yearis Day and that this realme onlie is different fra all utheris in the compt and reckining of the yeiris: …
Ex Regist, Secr. conc. in Archivis Publicis Scotiae.[34][p]
Scotland had already made part of the change: its calendar year had begun on 1 January since 1600.[34] Thus, in Scotland, the day after 31 December 1599 became 1 January 1600 instead of 1 January 1599, as it otherwise would have done for a year which began on 25 March 1599. King James VI of Scotland and his council were prompted by the example of Continental countries to make the change, as the recitals in the Register of the Scottish Privy Council of 17 December 1599 record.[35]
The remainder of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 applied equally to Scotland, a part of the Kingdom of Great Britain since the Acts of Union 1707.
Ireland[edit]
At the time, the Kingdom of Ireland was a semi-autonomous kingdom in a personal union with the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Declaratory Act 1719 asserted that the Parliament of Great Britain had the right to legislate for Ireland, which was one of His Majesty’s Dominions. Nevertheless, in 1782, the Parliament of Ireland enacted a statute to confirm the application of the 1750 Act to Ireland.[36] Whatever the de jure status of the British Act in Ireland, it was applied immediately de facto, as recorded in the ready reckoner printed in Faulkner’s Dublin Journal for 1752.[37]
Isle of Man[edit]
In January 1753, the Tynwald, the legislature of the Isle of Man, passed an Act for regulating the Commencement of the Year, and for establishing the new Calendar now used in England,[38] now referred to as the Gregorian Calendar Act 1753.[39][40] The Act recited that the calendar established by the British Act had been observed in the Island since 1 January 1752, and made provision in similar terms to the British Act. The Act was promulgated and became law, with retrospective effect, on 5 July 1753. One of its permanent effects was to postpone the holding of the annual sitting of Tynwald at St John’s, at which Acts of Tynwald were and still are promulgated, from 24 June (the feast of St John the Baptist) to 5 July.[41]
America[edit]
map showing the European colonies that became the USA. It shows the Spanish, French and British colonies.
The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 applied to Britain’s American colonies: the north-eastern states of the present day United States and part of Canada.[42] Some British law, including the 1750 Act, is still applicable in some US states because, when American independence was declared in 1776, it was not practical for these former colonies to create an entirely new body of American law to replace British law. The practical solution adopted was to continue to apply British law as it stood in 1776 but subject to the proviso that it could be overridden by any subsequent provision of American law,[43] and did not conflict with the Constitution and laws of the United States.[44] Some States later passed brief calendar measures but others left this and other old British acts in place.
James Bryan Whitfield, a former Florida Supreme Court judge, together with others, produced in 1941 a comprehensive list of the relevant measures.[45] This built on earlier work by Missouri. The list includes the key part of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750.
Some states adopted as their common law the laws of England as it was in 1607, predating the 1750 Act.[46]
There is no US federal calendar law.[47]
The Act remains directly in force in Canada as part of Canadian law.[48][49]
Other former British colonies[edit]
The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 applies directly or indirectly in other former British colonies.
Early Australian colonial legislation applied British law.[50] Subsequently, various reviews have considered the relevance of old British statutes. Australian States eventually repealed British statutes but re-enacted those which remained relevant, such as the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750. For example, New South Wales passed the Imperial Acts Application Act 1969, the First Schedule of which repeals various British statutes including the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750.[51] At the same time section 16 continues the operation of the British Calendar Act by restating key parts and by referring to that Act for the details.[52] Other Australian States passed similar measures.
New Zealand also passed early legislation at various times applying British law.[53][54] In 1988, New Zealand enacted the Imperial Laws Application Act 1988, which disapplied all but a limited schedule of English Acts it declared to be “part of the laws of New Zealand”, one of which is the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750.[55]
Asia and Africa[edit]
Britain had by this time begun colonising India and parts of Africa—hence the references to Asia and Africa.
Europe[edit]
Apart from Great Britain and Ireland, the only part of Europe under effective British sovereignty was Gibraltar. However, each session of Parliament began with a recital that the King was also the rightful King of France.[56][q]
Reaction and effect[edit]
“Give us our eleven days!” – the calendar riot myth[edit]
a satirical painting by William Hogarth. It shows canvassers for the Whig Party relaxing in an inn after an affray outside with their opponents from the Tory Party. On the floor, trampled underfoot, is a Tory campaign poster reading “Give us our Eleven Days”
Some history books report rioting in reaction to the calendar change, with people demanding that their ‘eleven days’ be returned. However this is very likely a myth, based on just two primary sources—The World, a satirical journal of Lord Chesterfield, and An Election Entertainment, a painting by the satirist William Hogarth.[57] There are no contemporary records of any such events in the riot depositions at the Public Record Office.[58][59]
This is the same Lord Chesterfield who introduced the Bill to the House of Lords. He wrote to his son, “Every numerous assembly is a mob, let the individuals who compose it be what they will. Mere sense is never to be talked to a mob; their passions, their sentiments, their senses and their seeming interests alone are to be applied to. Understanding have they collectively none”.[22] There is no record of which ‘numerous assembly’ he had in mind.
When the son of the Earl of Macclesfield (who had been influential in passing the Act) stood for Parliament in Oxfordshire as a Whig in 1754, dissatisfaction with the calendar reform was one of a number of issues raised by his Tory opponents. In 1755, Hogarth produced a painting (and an engraved print from the painting) loosely based on these elections, entitled An Election Entertainment, which shows a placard carrying the slogan “Give us our Eleven Days” (on floor at lower right). In his book Hogarth, His Life, Art and Times (1993), Ronald Paulson says of the picture that “the Oxfordshire people … are specifically rioting, as historically the London crowd did, to preserve the ‘Eleven Days’ the government stole from them in September 1752 by changing the calendar”,[60] but does not provide any supporting evidence for either of these ‘riots’.
Thus the ‘calendar riot’ fiction was born. The election campaign depicted concluded in 1754, after a very lengthy contest between Court Whigs and Jacobite Tories. Every issue between the two factions was brought up, including the question of calendar reform. The Tories attacked the Whigs for every deviation, including their alleged favouritism towards foreign Jews and the ‘Popish’ calendar. Hogarth’s placard, part of a satire on the character of the debate, was not an observation of actual crowd behaviour.[61]
Financial concerns[edit]
Three Market Days unto the Farmer’s lost,
Yet three per Cent, is added to his Cost:
The Landlord calls for Rent before ’tis due,
King’s Tax, and Windows, Poor, and Parson too;
With Numbers more, our Grandsiers never knew.
Domestick Servants all will have their Pay,
And force their Masters e’re the Quarter Day.
How shall the Wretch, then glean his Harvest in,
His Cash expended e’re he does begin;…
Or how the Miser cram his Bags with Pelf,
If that he don’t receive it first himself?
True Briton, Bristol, 20 September 1752[62][r]
There were, however, legitimate concerns lest tax and other payments arise any earlier under the new calendar than they would otherwise have done. Consequently, Provision 6 of the Act (‘Times of Payment of Rents, Annuities’) stipulated that monthly, quarterly or yearly payments would not become due until the days that originally they would have done, had the Julian calendar continued.[64] That is, due dates are deferred by eleven days.
The Earl of Macclesfield in his speech to the House of Lords during the passage of the Bill said a proportionate reduction in payments had been considered as an alternative solution. That is, maintaining the original payment dates but reducing the amounts due proportionately to reflect the omission of eleven days from the quarter ending on 29 September 1752 (Michaelmas Day). Macclesfield said this idea was abandoned because it would prove more complex than appeared at first sight.[65] Despite this the Treasury later considered legislating to over-ride the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 provisions by applying proportionate reductions to government payments of interest, salaries and wages but the idea was abandoned.[65] Nevertheless the Treasury realised that outside government a proportionate reduction of wages, rents etc for the short quarter might be convenient for some cases. Dr Robert Poole writes that the Treasury “decided that a tidy move to new-style quarter day payments might gradually be achieved at the point where old leases expired and new ones began. Tables of abatements … for the eleven missing days were included in the official information about the changeover and widely published in the press, almanacs and pocket books”.[65] For example, The True Briton newspaper of 20 September 1752 reported that the reduction was 7d for each pound or, more precisely, 7 1⁄4d.[66][s]
Religious dissent[edit]
As already observed, the authors of the Act were careful to minimise the impact on religious sensitivities, by expressing the revision in terms consistent with the traditions of the established Church of England, given the experience of previous attempts. By the middle of the 18th Century, however, it seems that the climate had changed somewhat. The traditional saints’ days like Lady Day, Michaelmas and Martinmas had come to mark events in the civil calendar such as fair days, rent days and hiring days far more than they did days of special religious observance. Poole writes “The religious calendar of the established church continued, but it encompassed a shrinking proportion of the population as Dissent expanded at the expense of Anglicanism, and as parish wakes, feasts and saints’ days were themselves disowned by many parish clergy”.[67] So the Act explicitly exempted fairs and marts from the calendar reform; “that is, they were to change their nominal date to retain the same place in the season, thus in effect observing the Old Style”.[68]
The revision to the Book of Common Prayer setting the new basis for calculating the date Easter (and its associated events like Lent) appears to have passed without public controversy – “perhaps”, Poole remarks, “because few people understood how Easter worked anyway”.[11] The date of Christmas, however, proved to be a different matter. The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle, 23 January 1753 reported that a “vast concourse of people” in Somerset gathered at the (Christmas-flowering) Glastonbury thorn on 24 December 1752 (New Style) to test the authenticity of the new date “but to their great disappointment, there was no appearance of its blowing, which made them watch it narrowly the 5th of Jan. the Christmas-Day, Old-Stile, when it blow’d as usual.”,[69] although the vicar of Glastonbury later announced that it had in fact flowered nearer New Christmas Day.[69] William Dawson (1902) writes that a Reverend Francis Blackburne opened his church on Friday, 5 January 1753 ([O.S., 25 December 1752]) – to a congregation which filled the building. “The people were sorely disappointed, however, when the rector did not use the service designated for Christmas Day but instead, like a crusading clergyman of the twentieth century, preached a sermon on the virtue of obeying the Calendar Act”.[70]
Amendments to Calendar (New Style) Act 1750[edit]
Calendar Act 1751[edit]
The Calendar Act 1751 (25 Geo II c.30) was needed to rectify some unforeseen consequences of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750.[31]
Section 1 of the 1751 Act concerned the legal validity of actions that were due to be executed on the omitted eleven days, 3 September to 13 September 1752. The Act provided that for 1752 only, those actions would be deemed to be lawful and to have effect on “the same natural days” as if the reform had not taken place.
Section 2 addressed calendar dates associated with the opening of common land, the payment of rents, and other matters. Such legal acts as were governed by the dates of movable feasts would thenceforth conform to the dates of those feasts in the revised calendar.
Section 3 provided that nothing should abridge, extend, or alter the titles of land.
Section 4 resolved the date for electing the Mayor of the City of London and also revised an unrelated Act (24 Geo II c.48) that had shortened the Michaelmas term.
The 1751 Act also addressed the effect of the revised calendar on the fishing season, extending it to account for what would otherwise have meant the loss of the best part of the herring catch.
25 Geo II c.31[edit]
A similar problem was identified shortly afterwards with the mayoral ceremony in Chester; this was rectified by appending it to an Act, 25 Geo II c.31,[t] about distemper in cattle.[72]
Anniversary Days Observance Act 1859[edit]
Section 3 of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 required the observation of certain days of political or religious significance. These are listed in a Table headed “Certain Solemn Days for which particular [church] Services are appointed” and are: 5 November (the Gunpowder Plot); 30 January (Execution of Charles I); and 29 May (The Restoration).
As part of the development of religious and political toleration, Section 1 of the Anniversary Days Observance Act 1859 removed from various acts, including the Calendar Act, the obligation to commemorate these days with special church services.
Easter Act 1928[edit]
The Easter Act 1928 provided for the possibility of permanently fixing the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April. An Order in Council was needed to trigger the change and no such order was made. If invoked, the 1928 Act would have replaced the table of “Moveable and Immoveable Feasts” in the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750. This Act never came into force and the table was not changed.
Statute Law Revision Act 1948[edit]
The Statute Law Revision Act 1948 simplified and removed some redundant words from Section VI of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, including the reference to the time at which the age of 21, or any other age, is reached. The provision about age could only affect those alive at the time of calendar reform. The 1948 Act also repealed the “Table to find Easter till the Year 1899 inclusive” and the “Table of the Moveable Feasts for Fifty two years”. By 1948 these tables had ceased to be relevant and this Act deleted them.[73]
Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1971[edit]
The calendar included in the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 is headed “The Calendar, with the Table of Lessons”. For each month the morning and evening prayers are specified. The Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1971 removed the words “with the Table of Lessons” and also all the specified prayers in the Table. The changes followed a Law Commission Report and reflected the views of the Church.
Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1986[edit]
Section IV of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 has provisions about the dates for meetings of courts in Scotland. These were repealed by the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1986.
Consequences: why the British income tax year ends on 5 April[edit]
In his 1995 paper on the calendar reform, Dr Poole cites the Treasury Board Papers at the National Archives and explains that, after the omission of eleven days in September 1752, the national accounts carried on being drawn up to the same four quarter days as usual but their dates were moved on by eleven days “so that financial transactions should run their full natural term”.[74] Lady Day on 25 March Old Style, which became the most important of these dates for taxation purposes,[u] became 5 April New Style.
See also[edit]
Old Style and New Style dates
Notes[edit]
^ The Act makes no reference to Gregory, since to do so might imply recognition of Papal primacy. It defined a calendar identical to the Gregorian system, from the same first principles.
^ Nominally rather than in reality, as described below.
^ Some authorities had continued to follow the Roman calendar method of inserting the leap day between 24 February and 25 February, then ignoring it for legal purposes.
^ For example see Pepys, Samuel. “Tuesday 31 December 1661”. I sat down to end my journell for this year, … (The Diary of Samuel Pepys)
^ For example, between 25 March and 31 December 1719 inclusive the dates under the two systems for beginning the year are the same. But dates falling between 1 January and 24 March inclusive are not: 2 February 1719 in the year beginning 25 March 1719 (as in England) is the same day as 2 February 1720 in a year beginning on 1 January (as in Scotland).
^ 25 March is the Feast of the Annunciation: Christians believe that this is the moment when Jesus was conceived.
^ Benjamin Woolley, writing in his biography of Elizabethan mathematician John Dee (1527–1608/9), notes that immediately after 1582 English letter writers “customarily” used “two dates” on their letters.[7]
^ The choice of the start of the year was a separate issue from the choice of calendar. Scotland changed to a 1 January start in 1600 but continued to use the Julian calendar for another 152 years. Until 1752, England kept a 25 March start and also used the Julian calendar. The applicability of the Act to Ireland and the Isle of Man is discussed below.
^ This form of words was required because, absent the Act, the next day – 1 January – would also be 1751.
^ The Act gives the name of this Council incorrectly as “Nice”
^ Because 1600 was a leap year according to both calendars, the accumulated error reached eleven days (not twelve) by 1750, due to the Julian-only leap year in 1700
^ “… shall for the future, and in all Times to come, be esteemed and taken to be Bissextile or Leap Years, consisting of three hundred and sixty six Days, in the same Sort and Manner as is now used with respect to every fourth Year of Our Lord.”
^ Macclesfield was later to become President of the Royal Society (1752–1764)
^ For example, when it became necessary to amend this Act, the name of the Act to do so is “An act to amend an act made in the last session of parliament, (intituled, An act for regulating the commencement of the year, and for correcting the calendar now in use)”, with its session and chapter abbreviation given as a margin note.[31]
^ The 1746 Act was repealed by the Welsh Language Act 1967 for the future but not the past. From 1967, legislation refers to ‘England’, ‘Wales’ or ‘England and Wales’ as appropriate.
^ This text, written in Scots, may be roughly translated as His Majesty the King and the Lords of his Privy Council, understanding that in all other well-governed commonwealths and countries the first day of the year begins yearly on the first day of January commonly called New Year’s Day and that this Realm s only different from all the others in the account and reckoning of the years: …
^ Latin: Anno Regni GEORGII II Regis Magnæ Britannie Franciæ & Hiberniæ vicesimo quarto transl. The twenty-fourth year of the reign of George II, Great King of Britain, France and Ireland
^ Poole adds a comment that “The end-point of a rather tortuous argument was that the abatements should have been greater. The journal adopted the New Style and supported the reform, pointing out only that the Gregorian calendar was still slightly inaccurate”.[63]
^ 7.25 old pennies (‘d’) in a pound of 240 old pence equals 3.02%; 11 days in a year of 366 days equals 3.01% [both calculations correct to two decimal places]
^ This Act has no short title, being known simply by its number, 25 Geo II c.31, or by its long title An act to amend an act made in the last session of parliament intituled An act to continue, explain and amend several laws more effectually to prevent the spreading of distemper which now rages amongst the horned cattle in this kingdom.[71]
^ Income Tax in the United Kingdom did not come into existence until 1798.
References[edit]
^ Pickering 1765a, p. 186.
^ “Suetonius on Julius Caesar’s calendar reform, chapter 40”. Perseus Digital Library at Tufts University.
^ C R Cheney 1945, Chapter 1, Section IV.
^ “New Year’s Day: Julian and Gregorian Calendars”. Sizes.com. 8 May 2004. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
^ Bond 1875, p. 91.
^ C R Cheney 1945, Chapter 12.
^ Woolley, Benjamin (2001). The Queen’s Conjurer: The science and magic of Dr. John Dee, adviser to Queen Elizabeth I. New York: Henry Holt and Company. p. 173. ISBN 9780805065107.
^ Pickering 1765a, p. 187.
^ C R Cheney 1945, Chapter 1, Section VII.
^ Bond 1875, p. 91–101.
^ Jump up to: a b Poole 1995, p. 112.
^ Poole 1995, p. 106.
^ Poole 1995, pp. 108, 109.
^ Pickering 1765a, 3 “Easter and the other moveable feasts to be observed according to the new calendar, tables and rules. Feast and fasts, etc. to be according to the new calendar.”.
^ Pickering 1765a, p. 205.
^ Pickering 1765a, p. 209.
^ Augustus de Morgan (1851). The Book of Almanacs. p. viii (Introduction) – via Archive.org. The description copied into prayer-books from the Act of Parliament for the change of style is incorrect in two points: it substitutes the day of full moon for the fourteenth day, and the moon of the heavens for the calendar moon. But the details thus wrongly headed are, as intended, true copies of the Gregorian calendar.
^ Campion, Rev W M; Beamont, Rev W J (1870). The Prayer Book interleaved. London. p. 31. Before the Reformation St Matthias’ day was kept in Leap-year, on Feb. 25th. In the Prayer-book of 1549 we read: “This is also to be noted, concerning the Leap-years, that the 25th day of February, which in Leap-years is counted for two days, shall in those two days alter neither Psalm nor lesson; but the same Psalms and Lessons which be said the first day, shall also serve for the second day.” Wheatly thinks that this alteration was made in order that the Holy-day might always be kept on the 24th. In the Calendar put forth in 1561 the old practice was resumed, and the following rule which was inserted in the Prayer-book of 1604, was promulgated: “When the year of our Lord may be divided into four even parts, which is every fourth year, then the Sunday letter leapeth, and that year the Psalms and Lessons which serve for the 23rd day of February, shall be read again the day following, except it be Sunday, which hath Proper Lessons of the Old Testament, appointed in the Table serving to that purpose.” In 1662 the intercalary day was made the 29th of February so that St Matthias now must always be kept on the 24th.
^ Act of Uniformity 1662. 1819. p. 364.
^ Pickering 1765a, p. 193.
^ Poole 1998, p. 113.
^ Jump up to: a b Chesterfield 1751, letter CXXXII, page 193.
^ Pickering 1765a, page 981.
^ Chesterfield 1751, letter CXXXV, page 197.
^ Poole 1998, p. 114-115.
^ Poole 1998, p. 115.
^ Jump up to: a b Pickering 1765a, p. 979.
^ Pickering 1765a, p. 991.
^ “House of Lords Journal Volume 27: May 1751, 11-20”. British History Online. pp. 558–569. A Message was brought from the House of Commons, by Mr. Grey and others to return the Bill, intituled, “An Act for regulating the Commencement of the Year, and for correcting the Calendar now in Use,” and to acquaint this House, that they have agreed to the said Bill, with some Amendments, whereunto they desire their Lordships Concurrence.
^ “House of Lords Journal Volume 27: May 1751, 21-30”. British History Online. pp. 569–578. But see heading #Date of the Act below for the contemporary significance of the date of Royal Assent.
^ Jump up to: a b Pickering 1765b, p. 368.
^ “Short Titles Act 1896”, legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 20 September 1896, 1896 c. 14, retrieved 6 November 2020 First Schedule.
^ Danby Pickering, ed. (1799). “XII An act to prevent acts of parliament from taking effect from a time prior to the passing thereof”. The Statutes at Large from Magna Charta to the end of the Eleventh Parliament of Great Britain Anno 1761 (continued). XXXIX, Τhe Statutes at Large Anno tricesimo tertio Georgii III Regis Being the Third Session of the Seventeenth Parliament of Great Britain. Cambridge. (Short title: “Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793”. 33 Geo III c.13: this Act also obtained its present Short Title by virtue of the Short Titles Act 1896.)
^ Jump up to: a b Bond 1875, footnote on pages xvii–xviii: original text of the Scottish decree..
^ David Masson, ed. (1884). The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland. VI. p. 63.
^ “XLVIII”. Statutes Passed In the Parliaments Held In Ireland … From the Third Year of Edward the Second, A.D. 1310 [to the Fortieth Year of George III, A.D. 1800, Inclusive]. VII. Dublin. 1794. p. 156.
^ Morgan, Hiram (April 2006). ‘The Pope’s new invention’:the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Ireland, 1583-1782. Ireland, Rome and the Holy See: History, Culture and Contact. Rome: History Department, University College Cork. p. 9.
^ Gill, J F, ed. (1883). Statutes of the Isle of Man. 1. p. 258.
^ “Pre-Revestment Written Laws (Ascertainment) Act 1978 section 2” (PDF). Government of the Isle of Man. 1978.
^ “Gregorian Calendar Act 1753” (PDF). Tynwald. 1753.
^ 1753 Act, section 11.
^ Mark M Smith (October 1998). “Culture, Commerce and Calendar Reform in Colonial America”. The William and Mary Quarterly. 55 (4): 557–584. doi:10.2307/2674445. JSTOR 2674445.
^ Brown, Elizabeth Gaspar (1964). British Statutes in American Law 1776-1836. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Law School.
^ “2.01 Common law and certain statutes declared in force.”. Florida Statutes. State of Florida. The common and statute law of England which are of a general and not a local nature … down to the fourth day of July 1776, are declared to be in force in this state, provided the said statutes and common law be not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the United States and the acts of the legislature of this state.
^ “List of British Statutes” (PDF). Florida State University.
^ “Benson Reception of the Common Law in Missouri”.
^ Steel 2001, p. 16.
^ Robert Douglas (29 November 2013). “Calendar”. Canadian encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
^ “Question1. What years are leap years?”. Candada.ca. National Research Council Canada.
^ “Australian Courts Act 1828” (PDF). Government of Australial. p. 31 (original), 9 (transcript). … and be it further enacted that all laws and statutes in force within the realm of England at the time of the passing of this act […] shall be applied in the administration of justice in the courts of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land respectively…
^ “Imperial Acts Application Act 1969 No 30, First Schedule”. Government of New South Wales. 28 September 2020. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
^ “Imperial Acts Application Act 1969 No 30, Part 3, Division 2 Calendar §16”. Government of New South Wales. 28 September 2020. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
^ “English Laws Act 1858 (21 and 22 Victoriae 1858 No 2)”. Government of New Zealand.
^ “English Laws Act 1908 ~ New Zealand”. constitutionwatch.com.au. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
^ “Imperial Laws Application Act 1988”. Government of New Zealand. Schedule 1: Imperial enactments in force in New Zealand.
^ Pickering 1765a, p. 140.
^ Hudson, Myles. “Did a Calendar Change Cause Riots in England?”. Britannica Companions. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
^ Poole 1995, p. 101-102.
^ Steel 2001, p. 249.
^ for example, Paulson, Ronald (1993). Hogarth: Art and politics, 1750-1764. III. Cambridge: Lutterworth Press.
^ Poole 1995, p. 103.
^ Poole 1995, p. 118.
^ Poole 1998, footnote 82, page 118.
^ “Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, Section 6”. Parliament of Great Britain – via National Archives.
^ Jump up to: a b c Poole 1998, p. 131.
^ “London”. The True Briton. 20 September 1752. p. 118.
^ Poole 1995, p. 97.
^ Poole 1995, p. 122.
^ Jump up to: a b Young 1977, p. 149.
^ Dawson, William Francis (1902). Christmas: Its Origin and Associations, Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations during Nineteen Centuries. London. p. 237. cited in Young (1977) page 149
^ Danby Pickering, ed. (1765). “CAP XXXI An act to amend an act made in the last session of parliament intituled An act to continue, explain and amend several laws more effectually to prevent the spreading of distemper which now rages amongst the horned cattle in this kingdom”. The Statutes at Large from the 23rd to the 26th Year of King George II. 20. 25 Geo II c.31. The text of the act is not available.
^ Hemingway, Joseph (1831). History of the City of Chester, from Its Foundation to the Present Time. p. 266.
^ “Statute Law Revision Act 1948” (PDF). tarltonapps.law.utexas.edu. p. 1473. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
^ Poole 1995, p. 117.
Sources[edit]
Bond, John James (1875). Handy Book of Rules and Tables for Verifying Dates With the Christian Era Giving an Account of the Chief Eras and Systems Used by Various Nations…’. London: George Bell & Sons.
Pickering, Danby, ed. (1765a). “An act for regulating the commencement of the year; and for correcting the calendar now in use”. The Statutes at Large: From the Magna Charta, to the End of the Eleventh Parliament of Great Britain, Anno 1761 [continued to 1806]. 20. J. Bentham. p. 186. — The original 1750/51 Act, in facsimile image. For clearer text, with long s (ſ) converted to modern s, see British Calendar Act of 1751, the original text of the 1750 Act in plain text (ASCII) from Wikisource
Pickering, Danby, ed. (1765b). “An act to amend an act made in the last session of parliament, (intituled, An act for regulating the commencement of the year, and for correcting the calendar now in use.)”. The Statutes at Large: From the Magna Charta, to the End of the Eleventh Parliament of Great Britain, Anno 1761 [continued to 1806]. 20. J. Bentham. p. 368. — First amendment (1751/52) to the original Act.
C R Cheney, ed. (1945). A Handbook of Dates for students of British History. Revised by Michael Jones, 2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521778459.
Poole, Robert (1995). “‘Give us our eleven days!’: calendar reform in eighteenth-century England”. Past & Present. Oxford Academic. 149 (1): 95–139. doi:10.1093/past/149.1.95. JSTOR 651100.
Poole, Robert (1998). Time’s alteration : calendar reform in early modern England. UCL Press, Routledge Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781857286229.
Steel, Duncan (2001). Marking Time: The Epic Quest to Invent the Perfect Calendar. New York: Wiley. ISBN 9780471404217. (also available as e-book)
Young, Chester Raymond (1977). “The Observance of Old Christmas in Southern Appalachia”. In J. W. Williamson (ed.). An Appalachian Symposium: Essays Written in Honor of Cratis D. Williams. Appalachian State University. pp. 147–158. doi:10.2307/j.ctt1xp3mkm.16. JSTOR j.ctt1xp3mkm.16.
Chesterfield, Earl of (1751). Letters to his son (PDF) – via public-library.uk.
External links[edit]
Text of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. the Act as amended and in force today, from the National Archives
Text of the Calendar Act 1751 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. An act to amend the 1750 Act, from the National Archives
Original text of the Act in ASCII, at Wikisource
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Calendar_(New_Style)_Act_1750
Calendar (New Style) Act 1750
Contributors to Wikimedia projects
44-56 minutes
Calendar (New Style) Act 1750
Parliament of Great Britain
Long title An act for regulating the commencement of the year; and for correcting the calendar now in Use
Citation 24 Geo. 2 c. 23
Introduced by Lord Chesterfield
Territorial extent “In and throughout all his Majesty’s dominions and countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America”
Territorial extent of (original) subsequent repeals (to (i.e., after) the Anniversary Days Observance Act 1859): England and Wales, Scotland
Dates
Royal assent 27 May 1751
Commencement 1 January 1752
Other legislation
Amended by Calendar Act 1752, Anniversary Days Observance Act 1859, Statute Law Revision Act 1948, Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1971, Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1986
Status: Amended
Text of statute as originally enacted
Text of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom
from legislation.gov.uk.
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