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Calendars:
The Julian Calendar was in use in England before
1752.
The New Year was
celebrated on 1st January as it is today,
but for offical business, the
date was 25th March
(also
known as Lady
Day.)
So in the
records, If someone was born in
January, February or up to 24th March,
they may have 2 years of
birth. The first was the year using the
Julian system, and
the second
year mentioned will be using the modern
Gregorian
Calendar.
Because of the switch over in 1752, 1751 was a short
year, and only ran from 25th March
1751
to 31st December 1751. The New
Year started on January 1st 1752
(The Gregorian
Calendar)
There was a further
adjustment in September 1752, when
11 days were taken out of the month
to bring the New Calendar in
line with everyone else. Because of this
missing 11 days, the tax man
who usually collected taxes on Lady Day,
added the missing 11 days to the
end of the 1752-1753 tax year,
which
moved the tax date from Lady Day
to 6th April, as the start of the new
financial year (as it is
today.)
Half way through the old year,
from Lady Day was 29
September (known as Michaelmas)
and this half way point was used by the
church, to
collate their records
of baptisms, marriages & burials
to send to
the Archdeacon at Canterbury
Cathedral. So each yearly return document
will show the
events for
Michaelmas to Lady Day of one year, and Lady
Day to Michaelmas of the next
year.
Occasionally a 6 monthly report
was sent.
When it
comes to dating Wills and Archdeacon Court
documents, many show dates
according to the year
of the reign of
a monarch. e.g. Dated the
Twentieth Five(25th)
yeare of the reign of our Sovereign Lord
King James of
England, Ireland & France etc.
To help figure out the date, please
see the Monarch's
List. for
the years of reign to help you out.