Dates (VA-NOTES)

Dates found in documents prepared before 1752 may be an occasional source of confusion for researchers, even as they were to the people of the time. The source of the confusion is in the calendars, and the effects correspond in some respects to confusions that result today from the simultaneous use of English and metric measuring systems.

The calendar in use in Europe during the first sixteen centuries of the Christian era was the Julian Calendar, named for Julius Caesar, who introduced the first version of it in 46 B.C. The Julian Calendar was based on the observations of astronomers that the Earth required 365 and one-fourth days to make a complete revolution around the sun. Each fourth year had 366 days to keep the calendar synchronized. In the Julian Calendar the new year began on 25 March. That is, 31 December 1581 was followed immediately by 1 January 1581; and 24 March 1581 was followed immediately by 25 March 1582.

In A.D. 325 the Council of Nicaea established a fixed date in relation to the Vernal Equinox for the observance of Easter, but within a few centuries the calendar and the seasons got out of adjustment. In fact, it takes the Earth approximately 365.2422 days (not 365.25 days) to revolve once around the sun. The small discrepancy of about eleven minutes per year eventually produced big problems. By 1582, the Equinox had crept back from 21 March to 11 March.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII solved the problem and created the modern calendar that we use today. By the Gregorian Calendar, the new year begins on 1 January, not on 25 March. The normal year has 365 days, but every fourth year has 366 days. To correct for the eleven minutes, the Gregorian Calendar does not have leap years for any of the century years (i.e., 1700, 1800, 1900 are not leap years) except for century years divisible by 400 (i.e., 1600, 2000, 2400 are leap years). Gregory XIII put the new calendar into operation and brought the calendar back into its proper relationship to the seasons by declaring that the day immediately following 4 October 1582 was to be 15 October 1582.

Many parts of the western world declined to accept the Gregorian Calendar, and the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches continued to use the so-called old style dates into the twentieth century. England retained the Julian Calendar until 1752, when Parliament adopted the Gregorian Calendar for Great Britain and its colonies. The new year for the English-speaking world then became 1 January, and the discrepancy between dates, which had grown from eleven to twelve days, was resolved when Parliament declared that 2 September 1752 was to be followed immediately by 14 September 1752.

Because of the different practices in the dating of the new year, researchers may sometimes be misled in interpreting official documents prepared before 1752. Contemporaries were often confused, too, and very often they added the new style year to the old style date for dates from 1 January through 24 March. The form such dates usually took was 11 February 1731/2, that is, 1732 by the Gregorian Calendar. Many students still prefer to be precise about dating their pre-1752 documents and evidence and include the new style year, in the same form. It was not common in the colonial period, and it is not common now, to correct for the eleven or twelve days. Astronomers need to make the correction, but most people at the time did not, nor do modern writers. This is to avoid introducing a new complication into the problem of dating that the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar was intended to eliminate. It is never necessary or correct to indicate old style or new style for dates from 25 March through 31 December.

Not all colonists used the 1731/2 form, and not all colonists used old style dates all the way up to 1752. It is a wise precaution when consulting pre-1752 records to find out, if possible, the writer's preferences or habits in that regard. In letter books, ledgers, and bound court records, such as court order books, it is usually easy to turn to earlier and later entries to ascertain whether the dates from 1 January through 24 March were entered according to the Julian or the Gregorian Calendar.

An online series on Research in Virginia Documents. Prepared by Daphne Gentry, Publications and Education Services Division. Copyright by The Library of Virginia; this note may be reproduced in full if proper credit is given and no changes are made.



facebook twitter youtube instagram linkedin