GENBRIT-L Archives

Archiver > GENBRIT > 1998-05 > 0894543994


From: Derek Howard <>
Subject: Re: Dates written early 1700s
Date: Thu, 07 May 1998 14:26:34 +0200


You are correct Richard, eleven days were dropepd out of the calendar in
September, the day after Wednesday 2 September being called Thursday 14
September. The year began with 1 January following 31 December 1751.
Table 36 in "Handbook of Dates for Students of English History", by G H
Cheney (Royal Historical Society, London, 1945, oft reprinted) gives the
calendar for 1752. Supposedly the dates were chosen as containing no
important dates out of the calendar that year.

In Grassington, West Riding of Yorkshire, a market fair was according to
its charter, to be held on Michaelmas, 29 September, the feast of St.
Michael's Church there. Having lost the 11 days, when 29 September (Old
Style) came it was 11 October (New Style). The Grassington feast was
subsequently (and may still be) celebrated 11 days after the feast of
St. Michael. The shift upset or rebalanced the relationship of the range
of variation for the moveable feasts such as Easter dependent on the
lunar calendar with the fixed feasts such as that of St. John
(midsummer) and Christmas.

I believe that it is also the reason that the tax year started 6 April
having former to 1753 been 25 March Lady Day the old quarter day for
rents and New Year. Convenience now dictates that 1 April is more
commonly used. This official or tax year date also led to the censuses
after 1841 being held around end-March to early April for comparative
statistics.

Derek Howard
Brussels, Belgium

Richard Smith wrote:
> I thought that I had read that the `missing days' were 3rd - 13th Sept
> 1752. Is this wrong?
>
> ---------------
> Richard Smith.
> Clare College,
> Cambridge.
>
> (remove spam)

This thread: