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The calendar (new style) act 1750 adopted the Gregorian calendar in England from 1752, and changed the start of the civil year from 25 March to 1 January.

So, 1748-03-24 (old style) would have been followed by 1749-03-25 (old style) in the Julian calendar.

And, 1752-12-31 (new style) would have been followed by 1753-01-01 (new style) in the Gregorian calendar.

There seems to have been some informal use of new style dates in England before this time. Pepys's diary used new style dates nearly a century before they were officially adopted.

Leap years in the period before 1752 occurred when the new style year was divisible by 4, even though the official calendar used old style years. This page provides evidence of this (in the discussion of the London Gazette), and this page notes the evidence from the Parliamentary Journal.

Does anyone know of an online calendar that presents a correct year-at-a-glance view of the official old style calendar with the correct leap years? For example, a calendar starting on 1595-03-25 and ending on 1595-03-24, and including 1595-02-29? None of the Julian calendars I have found online do this.

If nobody can come up with a web page I will have to write one, but that is quite a chore :-( especially actually getting it right.

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    Sounds like a very niche request which is why you've not been able to find one. I'm not sure if this really qualifies as a history question, it seems more of a technological one to me.
    – Steve Bird
    Commented Aug 8, 2017 at 11:57
  • Sounds like a tool (potentially) used in the practice of history.
    – MCW ♦
    Commented Aug 8, 2017 at 12:12
  • Even this clever customisable calendar has no option for old-style years. timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1595&country=23
    – emrys57
    Commented Aug 8, 2017 at 12:17
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    Is there a reason you need a 'year-at-a-glance' calendar rather than just using an online converter for the dates of interest?
    – KillingTime
    Commented Aug 8, 2017 at 12:25
  • AH! Thank you, at least that one understands old style years! That is indeed helpful. However, I'd still like a year-at-a-glance old-style calendar, because it is more convenient and intuitive to look at and use, IMO.
    – emrys57
    Commented Aug 8, 2017 at 12:32

2 Answers 2

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Dick Henry provides a Julian calendar year-at-a-glance view going back to 46 B.C. on his website, but it abides by the timing specified by the papal bull "Inter gravissimas", so it doesn't show you O.S. dates after A.D. 1582.

Petko Yotov provides a side-by-side year-at-a-glance view extending into the future, going back to A.D. 1582, and providing a Julian calendar year-at-a-glance back to A.D. 1.

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  • I must be missing something here, because I see no old style years on Dick Henry's calendar. ? Plus, Petko Yokov's calendar says "old style" but seems actually to mean "Julian calendar with new style years".
    – emrys57
    Commented Aug 8, 2017 at 16:45
  • @emrys57 Dick Henry's calendar uses the Julian calendar for everything leading up to 1582. You can see the transition in 1582 where ten days are missing from October. Understandably, Petko's calendar starts on January 1 of each year, but otherwise provides the comparison you were looking for.
    – Paul Rowe
    Commented Aug 8, 2017 at 18:28
  • @emrys57 As for when the year starts, Wikipedia indicates that there was no consensus regarding the beginning of the year prior to adoption of the Gregorian calendar. It will be much more difficult to find an online resource that goes that extra mile.
    – Paul Rowe
    Commented Aug 8, 2017 at 18:53
  • I'm dealing with church registers that consistently use the old style year numbering starting on March 25.
    – emrys57
    Commented Aug 9, 2017 at 7:57
  • @emrys57 Understood. In your situation, you're dealing with a set of records that consistently use Annunciation Style dating. You're asking for a one-off solution, useful when consistently researching records that use Annunciation Style dating, not as useful when researching records that begin the year on Christmas, January 1, March 1, or even Easter. Note in the Wikipedia article that the calendar "often continued to display the months running from January to December", even if New Years Day wasn't celebrated on January 1.
    – Paul Rowe
    Commented Aug 9, 2017 at 16:25
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I'd be sceptical of an online resource unless they'd really done their homework. If you want to take up the challenge then you need the standard reference book: "A Handbook of Dates for Students of British History" by Cheney and Jones.

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