The 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, is an
Act of the
Parliament of Great Britain
The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in May 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The Acts ratified the treaty of Union which created a new unified Kingdo ...
. Its purpose was for Great Britain and the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
to adopt the
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...
(in effect). The Act also rectified other dating anomalies, such as changing the start of the legal year from 25March to 1January.
The Act
elide
In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...
d eleven days from September 1752. It ordered that religious
feast days
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context do ...
be held on their traditional dates—for example, Christmas Day remained on 25 December. (Easter is a
moveable feast
A moveable feast is an observance in a Christian liturgical calendar which occurs on different dates in different years.John Ayto ''Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms'' 2010 p123 019954378X "a movable feast an event which takes place at no reg ...
: 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
In British and Irish tradition, the quarter days were the four dates in each year on which servants were hired, school terms started, and rents were due. They fell on four religious festivals roughly three months apart and close to the two solstic ...
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
In summary, the Act has three key elements:
* It acknowledges the practical difficulties created for England 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
The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...
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. 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
{{other uses, Centennial (disambiguation), Centenary (disambiguation)
A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century, a period of 100 years.
Notable events
Notable centennial events at a ...
years no longer be leap years unless divisible by 400.
* An annexe to the Act gives a method to
calculate the dates of Easter by varying slightly
the traditional method of the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
(rather than by adopting
the method of
Pope Gregory XIII
Pope Gregory XIII ( la, Gregorius XIII; it, Gregorio XIII; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585), born Ugo Boncompagni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for ...
).
The Act also provides that fixed religious
feast day
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
s continue to be observed on the same calendar date, whereas movable feasts (whose dates depend on the date of Easter) would follow from the new rules for its calculation. Religious feast days were to be held to their nominal dates (for example
Michaelmas
Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, a ...
, on 29 September), but the Act also requires 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
Hiring fairs, also called statute or mop fairs, were regular events in pre-modern Great Britain and Ireland where labourers were hired for fixed terms. They date from the time of Edward III, and his attempt to regulate the labour market by the S ...
moved to 10 October and became known as
Old Michaelmas Day
Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, ...
. Christmas Day was still celebrated on 25 December and an '
Old Christmas
Little Christmas ( ga, Nollaig na mBan, lit=Women's Christmas), also known as Old Christmas, Green Christmas, or Twelfth Night, is one of the traditional names among Irish Christians and Amish Christians for 6 January, which is also known more ...
' was not formalised: nevertheless, some communities were
reluctant to accept the change.
The Act includes various measures to prevent injustice and other problems. For example, Section VI, 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 same Section says a person does not reach a particular age, including especially the
age of majority
The age of majority is the threshold of legal adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when minors cease to be considered such and assume legal control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thus terminating the contr ...
(21), until the complete number of years have passed.
In addition, the Act finally settles the position of
leap day
February 29, also known as leap day or leap year day, is a date added to leap years. A leap day is added in various solar calendars (calendars based on the Earth's revolution around the Sun), including the Gregorian calendar standard in mo ...
in
English law
English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures.
Principal elements of English law
Although the common law has, historically, be ...
as 29 February.
Background and context
New Year's Day
![Memorial to John Etty (18373251064)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Memorial_to_John_Etty_%2818373251064%29.jpg)
By the 18th century, the English legal year used for legal, financial and other civil purposes had for centuries begun on 25 March, or
Lady Day
In the Western liturgical year, Lady Day is the traditional name in some English-speaking countries of the Feast of the Annunciation, which is celebrated on 25 March, and commemorates the visit of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, durin ...
. Thus, for example, 24 March 1707 was immediately followed by 25 March 1708, while the day following 31 December 1708 was 1 January 1708, with 1709 still nearly three months away. The introduction to the Act states succinctly the rationale for a change to the start of the year in England (and Wales) to 1 January: the March date had been found to have many inconveniences. It differed from the date (1 January) used by Scotland, which had ceased to use 25 March in 1600, as well as that used by other neighbouring countries and ordinary people throughout the kingdom. As a consequence, it says, frequent mistakes were made in the dates of deeds and other writings.
In
The Twelve Caesars
''De vita Caesarum'' (Latin; "About the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as ''The Twelve Caesars'', is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire written by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. The g ...
,
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; c. AD 69 – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire.
His most important surviving work is a set of biographies ...
wrote that the
Julian calendar
The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...
, introduced by
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
in 45 BC as
consul
Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throug ...
, continued the old Roman practice of beginning the year with 1 January. Later Christians, however, felt that 1 January had no religious significance and wanted to begin the year on a more appropriate date, resulting in a great variety of dates being used during the
medieval period
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
. No civil legislation or religious
canon law
Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is th ...
ordered this change, but Christmas Day on 25 December gradually became a popular date for New Year in England from the 6th century,
though this custom fell almost entirely out of use by the beginning of the 14th century. It is not wholly clear why 25 March came to be settled on as the beginning of the legal year instead, though it saw use in
Aquitaine
Aquitaine ( , , ; oc, Aquitània ; eu, Akitania; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne ( oc, Guiana), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former administrative region of the country. Since 1 January ...
during the 10th century and
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
by the 11th (shortly before the
Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...
). The 11th century also saw dedications to the
Virgin Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...
go from being rare in England to the most frequent, signifying the increasing importance of Lady Day in the
liturgical year
The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and whi ...
. Despite being commonplace by the middle of the 12th century, however, it then gave way to the invariable use of the
regnal year
A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin ''regnum'' meaning kingdom, rule. Regnal years considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year of ...
for legal records from the reign of
Henry II, though its legal status was cemented by its use in official Parliamentary records from the 16th century onwards.
From the 13th century, there also arose the curious phenomenon of New Year's Day being almost universally celebrated on 1 January, despite the recorded year not incrementing until 25 March.
However, it was the continuation of the
Roman calendar
The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. The term often includes the Julian calendar established by the reforms of the Roman dictator, dictator Julius Caesar and Roman emperor, emperor Augustus in the ...
layout beginning with January that eventually led European countries in the 16th century to return to a legal year that started on 1 January: for example the Venetian Republic (1522, sixty years before the Gregorian reform), France (1564) and Scotland (1600).
By 1750 most of Europe had already 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
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
or with Scotland. An informal system of '
dual dating
Dual dating is the practice, in historical materials, to indicate some dates with what appears to be duplicate, or excessive digits, sometimes separated by a hyphen, a slash or are placed one above the other. The need for dual dating arose from t ...
' had developed to help reduce confusion. For example, a date written as 21 January 1719/20 (or ) means both a date of 21 January 1719 (where the year began ten months earlier, on 25 March 1719, as in England) ''and'' a date of 21 January 1720 (where the year began three weeks earlier, 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 this difficulty by changing the start of the year to 1 January for England and Wales and the colonies. The change applied "after the last day of December 1751". 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
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...
).
The eleven day shift
![Inter-grav](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Inter-grav.jpg)
The reason given to discard both the traditional calendar and the eleven-day accumulated difference was a religious one: calculation of the date of Easter. The introduction to the Act explains that, due to
the inaccuracy in the Julian calendar, the date of the
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
The First Council of Nicaea (; grc, Νίκαια ) was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325.
This ecumenical council was the first effort ...
, 21 March, 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
Pope Gregory XIII ( la, Gregorius XIII; it, Gregorio XIII; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585), born Ugo Boncompagni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for ...
in 1582 by the
papal bull "" (""). 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.
Gregory's reform removed ten days from the Julian calendar, thus resetting 21 March to coincide with the equinox. 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 when the year was evenly divisible by four. The second part of Gregory's change declared that a centennial year would not be a leap year unless it was further evenly divisible by 400: Section II of the Act replicates this algorithm. By 1750,
almost all
In mathematics, the term "almost all" means "all but a negligible amount". More precisely, if X is a set, "almost all elements of X" means "all elements of X but those in a negligible subset of X". The meaning of "negligible" depends on the math ...
countries in
Western Christendom
Western Christianity is one of two sub-divisions of Christianity (Eastern Christianity being the other). Western Christianity is composed of the Latin Church and Western Protestantism, together with their offshoots such as the Old Catholic C ...
except Britain and its empire had already adopted Gregory's reform.
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 I of the Act corrects this divergence by providing that Wednesday, 2 September 1752 be followed by Thursday, 14 September 1752.
Calculation of the date of Easter: the Computus
The Annex to the Act gives the
algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...
(formally, 'the Computus') to be used thereafter in the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
's ''
Book of Common Prayer
The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...
'' to establish the date of Easter: this replaced
the previous rules used by the Church. However, with the potential for religious strife in mind, the promoters of the
Bill
Bill(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States)
* Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature
* Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer
* Bill, a bird or animal's beak
Plac ...
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 traditional method of the Church of England. They had reason to be cautious: the Government of
Elizabeth I had first attempted to reform the calendar in 1583/1584, but the Anglican hierarchy of the day rejected the proposal because of its Popish origins. Again, when Sir
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
renewed the campaign to correct the calendar in 1699, his proposal foundered on doctrinal objections. The Annex established a
computation for the date of Easter that achieved the same result as Gregory's rules, without actually referring to him. The
algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...
, set out in the ''Book of Common Prayer'' as required by the Act, includes calculation of the
Golden Number and the
Sunday Letter
Dominical letters or Sunday letters are a method used to determine the day of the week for particular dates. When using this method, each year is assigned a letter (or pair of letters for leap years) depending on which day of the week the year star ...
needed for the Anglican method. 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". The Annexe uses the terms '
Paschal Full Moon' and '
Ecclesiastical Full Moon An ecclesiastical full moon is formally the 14th day of the ecclesiastical lunar month (an ecclesiastical moon) in an ecclesiastical lunar calendar. The ecclesiastical lunar calendar spans the year with lunar months of 30 and 29 days which are int ...
', making it clear that they only approximate to the real
full moon
The full moon is the lunar phase when the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth's perspective. This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon (when the ecliptic coordinate system, ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon opp ...
.
In his ''The Book of Almanacs'' (1851)
Augustus de Morgan (Professor of Mathematics at
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
), 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.
Leap day
Until the
1662 edition of the ''Book of Common Prayer'', England followed the practice of the early Julian calendar period of creating a leap day by having two successive days numbered 24 February. 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 II 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. In addition, the calendar at the end of this Act confirms that leap day falls on 29February.
Passage through Parliament
upPhilip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield , alt=A portrait painting of the Earl of Chesterfield, wearing clothes typical of a mid-eighteenth century British aristocrat.
Today, a major reform of this kind would be a government
bill
Bill(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States)
* Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature
* Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer
* Bill, a bird or animal's beak
Plac ...
, but this was a
Private Member's Bill
A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in whi ...
, proposed in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
on 25 February 1750
March 1751 Gregorianby
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, (22 September 169424 March 1773) was a British statesman, diplomat, and man of letters, and an acclaimed wit of his time.
Early life
He was born in London to Philip Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Ches ...
. The proposition was seconded in detail by
George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield
George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, PRS (c. 1695 or 1697 – 17 March 1764) was an English peer and astronomer.
Styled Viscount Parker from 1721 to 1732, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Wallingford from 1722 to 1727, but his ...
,
[ (Debate in House of Lords in 1751 column 979992)] whom Chesterfield described as one of the greatest mathematicians and astronomers in Europe. Macclesfield had contributed the technical knowledge underlying the reform with support from
Martin Folkes
Martin Folkes PRS FRS (29 October 1690 – 28 June 1754), was an English antiquary, numismatist, mathematician, and astronomer.
Life
Folkes was born in Westminster on 29 October 1690, the eldest son of Martin Folkes, councillor at Law.Albe ...
(then
president of the Royal Society
The president of the Royal Society (PRS) is the elected Head of the Royal Society of London who presides over meetings of the society's council.
After informal meetings at Gresham College, the Royal Society was officially founded on 28 November ...
) and
James Bradley
James Bradley (1692–1762) was an English astronomer and priest who served as the third Astronomer Royal from 1742. He is best known for two fundamental discoveries in astronomy, the aberration of light (1725–1728), and the nutation of the ...
(the
astronomer royal
Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the junior is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834.
The post ...
). Bradley devised the revised Easter tables. Peter Davall, a barrister of the
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...
, who was also an astronomer and formerly secretary to the Royal Society, drafted the Bill. The prime minister
the Duke of Newcastle, opposed the Bill and asked Chesterfield to abandon it, but the Government did not block it and the Bill passed in the Lords without further debate.
The
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
passed the Bill on 13 May
24 May">.S. 24 May1751; it received
royal assent
Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...
on 22 May
.S. 2 June1751.
Title of the Act
The title of the Act is: ''An Act for regulating the Commencement of the Year, and for correcting the Calendar now in Use''.
It was not the practice in the 18th century to give short titles to Acts of Parliament. The old long titles had proved increasingly inconvenient, and it became the custom to refer to Acts by informal popular names. The
Short Titles Act 1896
The Short Titles Act 1896 (59 & 60 Vict c 14) is an Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It replaces the Short Titles Act 1892.
This Act was retained for the Republic of Ireland by section 2(2)(a ...
retrospectively gave short titles to old statutes that had not been repealed. In particular, the 1896 Act conferred the short title Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 on this Act.
Date of the Act
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 Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793 (33 Geo. 3 c. 13) is an Act of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain which requires that the clerk of the Parliaments endorse every act of Parliament with the date on which the act passed a ...
, the date on which a Bill became law was the first day of the Parliamentary Session in which it was passed, unless the Act contained a provision to the contrary.
The calendar reform bill was introduced in the session which began on 17 January 1750 Old Style
.S.28 January 1751 almost nine months into a year that had begun on 23March 1750. Hence the Short Titles Act 1896 assigned the calendar reform to 1750.
Territorial scope of the Act
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
After the
conquest of Wales by Edward I of England, English law was increasingly applied. Various Acts passed by the
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised t ...
between 1535 and 1542 consolidated the combination of England and Wales as a single
jurisdiction
Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels.
Jur ...
. Nevertheless, before the
Wales and Berwick Act 1746
The Wales and Berwick Act 1746 (20 Geo. II, c. 42) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain that created a statutory definition of England as including England, Wales and Berwick-upon-Tweed. This definition applied to all Acts passed before ...
(20 Geo. 2, c42) 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, the word 'England' was deemed to include Wales and thus the Calendar Act (four years later) applied to Wales, despite it not being named explicitly.
Scotland
As part of the
Kingdom of Great Britain
The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a Sovereign state, sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of ...
since the
Acts of Union 1707
The Acts of Union ( gd, Achd an Aonaidh) were two Acts of Parliament: the Union with Scotland Act 1706 passed by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act 1707 passed by the Parliament of Scotland. They put into effect the te ...
, the Act applied equally to Scotland as to England. Scotland had already made part of the change: its calendar year had begun on 1 January since 1600. The example of Continental countries prompted King
James VI of Scotland and his council to make the change, as the Register of the Scottish
Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
of 17 December 1599 records.
Ireland
At the time, the
Kingdom of Ireland
The Kingdom of Ireland ( ga, label=Classical Irish, an Ríoghacht Éireann; ga, label=Modern Irish, an Ríocht Éireann, ) was a monarchy on the island of Ireland that was a client state of England and then of Great Britain. It existed from ...
was a
semi-autonomous
In developmental psychology and morality, moral, political, and bioethics, bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who g ...
kingdom in a
personal union
A personal union is the combination of two or more states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, would involve the constituent states being to some extent interlink ...
with the Kingdom of Great Britain. The
Declaratory Act 1719
An Act for the better securing the dependency of the Kingdom of Ireland on the Crown of Great Britain (6. Geo. I, c. 5) was a 1719 Act of Parliament, Act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain which declared that it had the right to pass laws fo ...
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
The Parliament of Ireland ( ga, Parlaimint na hÉireann) was the legislature of the Lordship of Ireland, and later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1297 until 1800. It was modelled on the Parliament of England and from 1537 comprised two chamb ...
enacted a statute to confirm the application of the 1750 Act to Ireland. Whatever the status of the British Act in Ireland, it was applied immediately , as recorded in the
ready reckoner
A ready reckoner is a printed book or table containing pre-calculated values, often multiples of given amounts. They were widely used in shops and by tradesmen before the advent of cheap electronic calculators, metric weights and measures and ...
printed in
Faulkner's ''Dublin Journal'' for 1752.
Isle of Man
In January 1753,
Tynwald
Tynwald ( gv, Tinvaal), or more formally, the High Court of Tynwald ( gv, Ard-whaiyl Tinvaal) or Tynwald Court, is the legislature of the Isle of Man. It consists of two chambers, known as the branches of Tynwald: the directly elected House of ...
, the
Isle of Man
)
, anthem = "O Land of Our Birth"
, image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg
, image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg
, mapsize =
, map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe
, map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green)
in Europe ...
's legislature, passed an Act for regulating the Commencement of the Year, and for establishing the new Calendar now used in England, now referred to as the Gregorian Calendar Act 1753.
The Act recited that the island had observed the calendar established by the British Act 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.
America
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. 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, and did not conflict with the Constitution and laws of the United States.
James Bryan Whitfield, a former
Florida Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Florida is the highest court in the U.S. state of Florida. It consists of seven members: the chief justice and six justices. Six members are chosen from six districts around the state to foster geographic diversity, and one ...
judge, together with others, produced a comprehensive list of the relevant measures in 1941.
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.
There is no US federal calendar law.
The Act remains directly in force in Canada as part of
Canadian law
The legal system of Canada is Legal pluralism, pluralist: its foundations lie in the English common law system (inherited from its period as a colony of the British Empire), the Napoleonic Code, French civil law system (inherited from its New Fra ...
.
Other former British colonies
The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 applies directly or indirectly in other former British colonies.
Early Australian colonial legislation applied British law. 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. 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.
New Zealand also passed early legislation at various times applying British law. In 1988, New Zealand enacted the
Imperial Laws Application Act 1988
The Imperial Laws Application Act 1988 is an important part of New Zealand's uncodified constitution. The Act applies certain enactments of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and its predecessors, rulings of the Judicial Committee of the Priv ...
, 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.
Asia and Africa
Britain had by this time begun colonising India and parts of Africa—hence the references to Asia and Africa.
Europe
Apart from Great Britain and Ireland, the only part of Europe under effective British sovereignty was
Gibraltar
)
, anthem = " God Save the King"
, song = " Gibraltar Anthem"
, image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg
, map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe
, map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green
, mapsize =
, image_map2 = Gib ...
. However, each session of Parliament began with a recital that the King was
also the rightful King of France.
Reaction and effect
"Give us our eleven days!" – the calendar riot myth
![William Hogarth 028](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/William_Hogarth_028.jpg)
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
William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like s ...
. There are no contemporary records of any such events in the riot depositions at the
Public Record Office
The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was m ...
.
This is the same Lord Chesterfield who introduced the Bill to the House of Lords. He wrote to his son (without saying which 'numerous assembly' he had in mind), "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."
When the son of the Earl of Macclesfield (who had been influential in passing the Act) stood for
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
in Oxfordshire as a
Whig in 1754, dissatisfaction with the calendar reform was one of a number of issues raised by his
Tory
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...
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 the floor, lower right). In his book ''Hogarth, His Life, Art and Times'' (1993),
Ronald Paulson
Ronald Howard Paulson (born May 27, 1930 in Bottineau, North Dakota) is an American professor of English, a specialist in English 18th-century art and culture, and the world's leading expert on English Painting, artist William Hogarth.
Educati ...
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".
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.
Financial concerns
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 continuedthat is, due dates were 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
Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christianity, Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical year, liturgica ...
). Macclesfield said this idea was abandoned because it would prove more complex than it first appeared. Despite this, the Treasury later considered legislating to override the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 provisions by applying proportionate reductions to government payments of interest, salaries and wages, but the idea was abandoned. Nevertheless, the Treasury realised that outside government a proportionate reduction of wages, rents etc. for the short quarter might be convenient in 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
abatement
Abatement refers generally to a lessening, diminution, reduction, or moderation; specifically, it may refer to:
* 421-a tax abatement, property tax exemption in the U.S. state of New York
* Abatement of debts and legacies, a common law doctrine ...
s ... for the eleven missing days were included in the official information about the changeover and widely published in the press,
almanac
An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is an annual publication listing a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and other ...
s and
pocket books
Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.
History
Pocket Books produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing in ...
". For example, ''The True Briton'' newspaper of 20 September 1752 reported that the reduction was 7
d for each pound or, more precisely, d.
Religious dissent
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
A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular, is not necessarily a t ...
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
In the Western liturgical year, Lady Day is the traditional name in some English-speaking countries of the Feast of the Annunciation, which is celebrated on 25 March, and commemorates the visit of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, durin ...
,
Michaelmas
Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, a ...
and
Martinmas
Saint Martin's Day or Martinmas, sometimes historically called Old Halloween or Old Hallowmas Eve, is the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours and is celebrated in the liturgical year on 11 November. In the Middle Ages and early modern period, it ...
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
Dissent is an opinion, philosophy or sentiment of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or policy enforced under the authority of a government, political party or other entity or individual. A dissenting person may be referred to as ...
expanded at the expense of Anglicanism, and as parish wakes, feasts and saints' days were themselves disowned by many parish clergy." 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".
The revision to the ''Book of Common Prayer'' setting the new basis for calculating the date for Easter (and its associated events like
Lent
Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...
) appears to have passed without public controversy—"perhaps", Poole remarks, "because few people understood how Easter worked anyway". 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
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
gathered at the (Christmas-flowering)
Glastonbury thorn
The Glastonbury thorn is a form of common hawthorn, ''Crataegus monogyna'' 'Biflora'Phipps, J.B.; O’Kennon, R.J.; Lance, R.W. 2003. ''Hawthorns and medlars''. Royal Horticultural Society, Cambridge, U.K. (sometimes incorrectly called '' Crataegu ...
on 24 December 1752(New Style) to test the authenticity of the new date. "
t to their great disappointment, there was no appearance of its
blowing
Blowing may refer to:
*Air
*Breath
*Blowing by a whale, from blowhole (anatomy) Industrial processes
*Blowing (glassmaking)
* Blowing (textile finishing)
* Dry blowing, method to extract gold particles from dry soil without the use of water
*Melt b ...
, which made them watch it narrowly the 5th of Jan. the Christmas-Day, Old-Stile, when it blow'd as usual." The vicar of Glastonbury, however, later announced that it had in fact flowered nearer New Christmas Day. William Dawson (1902) writes 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."
[ cited in Young (1977) page 149]
Amendments to Calendar (New Style) Act 1750
Calendar Act 1751
The Calendar Act 1751 (25 Geo II c.30) was needed to rectify some unforeseen consequences of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750.
Section I 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 II 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 III provided that nothing should abridge, extend, or alter the titles of land.
Section IV 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
Michaelmas term is the first academic term of the academic year in a number of English-speaking universities and schools in the northern hemisphere, especially in the United Kingdom. Michaelmas term derives its name from the Feast of St Micha ...
.
25 Geo II c.31
A similar issue was identified shortly afterwards with the date of the "annual election of mayor, sheriffs, treasurers, coroners, and leave-lookers" in
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
"to avoid the inconvenience which would arise to the citizens, from the alteration of the style bringing the ancient day of election into the fair week." The issue was resolved by appending a clause to an otherwise irrelevant Act, (25 Geo II c.31, concerning
distemper in cattle) to move its statutory date forward by a week.
Anniversary Days Observance Act 1859
Section III 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
hurchServices are appointed" and are: 5 November (the
Gunpowder Plot
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby who sought ...
); 30 January (
Execution of Charles I); and 29 May (
The Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
).
As part of the development of religious and political toleration, Section I of the
Anniversary Days Observance Act 1859
The Anniversary Days Observance Act (22 Vict. c. 2; formal long title An Act to repeal certain Acts and Parts of Acts which relate to the Observance of the Thirtieth of January and other Days) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom wh ...
removed from various Acts, including the Calendar Act, the obligation to commemorate these days with special church services.
Easter Act 1928
The
Easter Act 1928
The Easter Act 1928 (c. 35) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed and enacted in 1928 concerning the date for Easter that has never come into force. The effect would be to establish Easter Sunday as the Sunday following the sec ...
was enacted to permit the date of Easter (as observed by the established church) to be fixed permanently, as the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April. An
Order in Council
An Order-in-Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom this legislation is formally made in the name of the monarch by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council ('' Ki ...
is needed for this Act to
come into force
In law, coming into force or entry into force (also called commencement) is the process by which legislation, regulations, treaties and other legal instruments come to have legal force and effect. The term is closely related to the date of this t ...
and no such order has been made. If so ordered, the 1928 Act would replace the table of "Moveable and Immoveable Feasts" in the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750.
Statute Law Revision Act 1948
The
Statute Law Revision Act 1948
The Statute Law Revision Act 1948 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Section 5(3) of the Statute Law Revision Act 1950 provided that this Act, so far as it repealed chapter 34 of the Statute of Westminster 1285 (13 Edw. 1 St. ...
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.
Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1971
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
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
The Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1986 (c 12) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
This Act was partly in force in Great Britain at the end of 2010.
It implemented recommendations contained in the twelfth report on statute law revisi ...
, following a report by the Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission.
Consequences: why the British income tax year ends on 5 April
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" (and thus Lady Day on 25 March Old Style became 5 April New Style).
See also
*
Old Style and New Style dates
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...
*
cal (command)#Quirks (1752)
Notes
References
Sources
*
* (This is the original 1750/51 Act, in facsimile image. For clearer text, with
long s
The long s , also known as the medial s or initial s, is an archaism, archaic form of the lowercase letter . It replaced the single ''s'', or one or both of the letters ''s'' in a 'double ''s sequence (e.g., "ſinfulneſs" for "sinfulness" ...
() converted to modern , see
British Calendar Act of 1751
The 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, is an Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. Its purpose was for G ...
, the original text of the 1750 Act in plain text (ASCII), from
Wikisource
Wikisource is an online digital library of free-content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project (each instance usually rep ...
.)
*
*
*
*
*
* (also available as e-book)
*
*
External links
* the Act as amended and in force today, from the National Archives
* An act to amend the 1750 Act, from the National Archives
*
Original text of the Act in ASCII, at
Wikisource
Wikisource is an online digital library of free-content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project (each instance usually rep ...
{{UK legislation
Calendars
Great Britain Acts of Parliament 1750
Time in the United Kingdom
1750 in science
1750 in Christianity