Calendar (New Style) Act 1750

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The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 (also known as Chesterfield's Act after Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield) is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (statute chapter book number 24 Geo II c. 23). Properly An Act for Regulating the Commencement of the Year; and for Correcting the Calendar now in Use, it reformed the calendar of England and British Dominions so that a new year began on 1 January rather than 25 March (Lady Day) and would run according to the Gregorian calendar as used in most of western Europe.

The mischief

The Parliament held that the Julian calendar then in use, as well as the start of the year being 25 March was -

"...attended with divers inconveniences, not only as it differs from the usage of neighbouring nations, but also from the legal method of computation in Scotland, and from the common usage throughout the whole kingdom, and thereby frequent mistakes are occasioned in the dates of deeds and other writings, and disputes arise therefrom..."

England

In England, the year 1751 was a short year of 282 days, running from 25 March to 31 December. 1752 began on 1 January.

To align the calendar in use in England to that in use on the continent, the changes introduced in 1582 by the Gregorian calendar were adopted with effect in 1752. To this end, the calendar was advanced by 11 days: 2 September 1752 was followed by 14 September 1752. The other changes brought about by Gregory were also adopted.

Scotland

Scotland had already made the change to having the year begin on 1st January in 1600, but only adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752.

Subsequent events

A few years later, when the son of the Earl of Macclesfield (who had been influential in passing the calendar law) ran for a seat in Parliament in Oxfordshire as a Whig in 1754, dissatisfaction with the calendar reforms was one of a number of issues raised by his Tory opponents. In 1755, William Hogarth made a painting (and an engraved print from the painting) loosely based on these elections, in which the campaign slogan "Give us our Eleven Days" appears (on floor at lower right); this was later misunderstood, giving rise to apocryphal stories of widespread riots at the change-over.

Under provision 6 (Times of Payment of Rents, Annuities) of the Act, Great Britain made special provisions to make sure that monthly or yearly payments would not become due until the dates that they originally would have in the Julian calendar.

From 1753 until 1799, the tax year in Britain continued to operate on the Julian calendar and began on 5 April, which was the "old style" new tax year of 25 March. A 12th skipped Julian leap day in 1800 changed its start to 6 April. It was not changed when a 13th Julian leap day was skipped in 1900, so the tax year in the United Kingdom still begins 6 April.

See also

• Fiscal year

References

Further reading

• Healton, Gilbert Year, Date, and Time Information How people and computers use dates and times
• Nørby, Toke. The Perpetual Calendar: What about England
• Stockton, J.R. Date Miscellany I: The Old and New Styles
• Staff. Guide to the Quaker Calendar, website of the Quakers Accessed 28 December 2007
• Staff. British Calendar Act 1751, WebExhibits (Source: Adapted from Gilbert Healton – see above). Accessed 28 December 2007

Footnotes

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Last updated on Sunday February 24, 2008 at 16:27:10 PST (GMT -0800)
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