The last day of the year used to be March 24th. The first day of the new year used to be March 25th. 24th March 1683 was followed by Lady Day 25th March 1684. 31st December 1684 was followed by 1st January 1684, the same year. The new year did not come in on January 1st. 24th March 1684 was followed by 25th March 1685.
A nice piece of evidence for this can be found in the floor of Salisbury cathedral. There is a memorial stone here in the north choir aisle outside the Morning Chapel. The inscription reads:
H S E The body of Tho[mas] the sonn of Tho. Lambert gent. who was borne May ye 13 An[no] Do[mini] 1683 & dyed Feb. 19 the same year.
This states that a child called Thomas was born on May 14th 1683 and died on February 19th 1683. This is not incorrect as at this time the year did not change to 1684 until March 25th. February came after May in the year 1683. (HSE stands for the latin hic sepultus est which translates as here is buried.)
This was so up to when 24th March 1751 was followed by 25th March 1752. Later during 1752 parliament changed things including decreeing that Wednesday 2nd September 1752 be followed by Thursday 14th September 1752; skipping 11 days. This same act of parliament decreed that 31st December 1752 be followed by 1st January 1753. To this day we still change the year on January 1st.
Taxes used to be paid on the first day of the year. This used to be March 25th. The city of London bankers were not going to pay their 1752 taxes early. When March 25th 1753 came they still regarded this as 11 days early so they eventually paid on April 5th 1753. The tax year still remains thus.
Thus there was no January or February in 1752 nor was there much of March. The year 1752 started on March 25th, missed out September 3rd to September 13th inclusive and ended on December 31st. Thus the year 1752 in England only had 271 days and was not a leap year as it had no February!
JAC 20071029
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