Calendar (New Style) Act 1750

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.

England

In England, the year 1751 commenced on 25 March and ended on 31 December, with 1752 beginning on 1 January. An additional correction to the calendar made by the act (to account for the fact the Julian calendar was eleven days behind the Gregorian) meant that 2 September 1752 was followed by 14 September 1752.

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.^[1]

See also

• Old Style and New Style dates
• Fiscal year

References

• Official text of the statute as amended and in force today within the United Kingdom, from the UK Statute Law Database

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
• Guide to the Quaker Calendar

Footnotes

1. ^ Spathaky, Mike Old Style and New Style Dates and the change to the Gregorian Calendar

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