Home Connecticut In Colonial New England, the New Year Started on March 25

In Colonial New England, the New Year Started on March 25

All because the English didn't like the pope

by
15 comments

In colonial New England, the new year did not start on January 1. Not because the Puritans didn’t want people to have too much fun on New Year’s Eve. It was because England refused to go along with the rest of Europe in adopting the Gregorian calendar.

The English year didn’t change until March 25, or Lady Day, when Christians celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin. So in 1620, John Winthrop’s father Adam wrote in his diary, “The new year beginneth,” on March 25.

European New Year

Didn't go along with the pope.

Didn’t go along with the pope.

The whole thing started with Julius Caesar. In 45 B.C., he ordered a new calendar, one with 12 months, 365 days and a start date of January 1. Every fourth year would include a leap year to compensate for the extra six hours or so it takes the earth to revolve around the sun.

By the 9th century, some southern European countries began celebrating the first day of the new year on March 25 to coincide with the Annunciation. Balky England didn’t follow along until the 12th century.

By the 16th century it became obvious that the Julian calendar overcompensated with too many leap years. Equinoxes were falling 10 days too early. Catholics worried they weren’t celebrating Easter  in the proper season. So in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII approved the New Style, or Gregorian calendar. Ten days were dropped from October 1582 and leap years came slightly less often. Only millennia years divisible by 400 would have leap years. January 1 would be New Year’s Day.

Pope Gregory by Lavinia Fontana

Most of Europe went along with the change. England did not. In 1582, Protestant Queen Elizabeth I did not intend to take orders from the Catholic Church. March 25 remained the legal start of the new year. But the English people began celebrating January 1 as New Year’s Day along with the rest of Europe. Almanac publishers went along with them, too.

Double Dating

That’s how double dating got started in colonial record keeping. Dates between Jan. 1 and March 25 were identified with a slash mark between the years that overlapped. Just as an example, records of the first parish in Brewster, Mass., show double dates:  ’Eleazer Crosbeys Eunice baptized on Jan : 9 . 1731/2’ and ‘Jonathan Cobb admitted on March 19 . 1731/2.’

Connecticut State Library

Double dating wasn’t for everyone, as the Connecticut State Library points out. The Colony of Connecticut’s records show a court at Hartford on 27 December 1636 followed by a court at Hartford on 21 February 1636 followed in turn by a court at Hartford on 28 March 1637. You might think the February session was recorded out of sequence, but it’s correct: December 1636 was followed by January and February 1636, because 1636 continued until March 24.

England and her colonies finally caved in to the new calendar when Parliament passed the Calendar Act of 1750. As of 1752, January 1 was officially the new year and 11 days were dropped from September.

Historians generally list both Old Style and New Style dates for pre-1752 records. Look up Ethan Allen, for example, and you’ll see his dates listed as ‘January 21, 1738 [O.S. January 10, 1737] – February 12, 1789.’ But that isn’t always the case. George Washington changed his birthdate from Feb. 11, 1732 under the Julian calendar to Feb. 22, 1732 under the Gregorian calendar.

So a word to the wise historian: Be careful how you date!

This story was updated in 2023.

Image: Connecticut State Library By STATELIB – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60468962

15 comments

Ring Them Revere Bells | New England Historical Society January 1, 2014 - 7:33 pm

[…] Double Dating in Colonial New England […]

The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut: Founding Document by a Founding Father | New England Historical Society January 14, 2014 - 8:06 am

[…] [jpshares]Free men from three Connecticut towns – Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield – signed The Fundamental Orders on Jan. 14, 1638 (N.S. Jan. 24, 1639, explanation here). […]

Isaiah Thomas Reads the Declaration of Independence | New England Historical Society January 20, 2014 - 12:18 am

[…] Thomas was born in Boston on Jan. 19, 1749 (N.S. Jan. 30, 1750). He was apprenticed at age six to Zachariah Fowle. In 1770 he started the wildly radical […]

The Great New England Earthquake of 1663 | New England Historical Society January 26, 2014 - 8:14 pm

[…] to a contemporary account in Canada, the heavens were serene around 6 pm on Jan. 26 (Old Style), 1662-3, when all of a sudden there came a roar ‘like that of a great […]

Massachusetts Issues the First Paper Money in the Western World To Pay for King William's War | New England Historical Society February 3, 2014 - 2:56 pm

[…] on Feb. 3, 1689/90, the Legislature of the Massachusetts Bay Colony issued 40,000 pounds worth of paper money, or […]

Massasoit Visits Plymouth for Trade and a Peace Treaty | New England Historical Society April 1, 2014 - 9:11 pm

[…] 11 am on March 22/April 1, 1621, a fine warm day, two Wampanoag Indians appeared in the village of Plymouth with skins and fish to […]

Francis Lovelace Founds the Boston Post Road in 1673 - New England Historical Society February 6, 2015 - 8:46 am

[…] He had been the royal governor of New York, and he had sent the first official postrider to Boston. Sometime in February 1673, the first mail ever arrived in Boston from New York City via the Boston Post Road. (Some put the date at Feb. 6, some at Feb. 11. All dates Old Style.) […]

William Kidd, the Pirate Who Was Framed - New England Historical Society April 6, 2016 - 8:27 am

[…] Double Dating in Colonial New England […]

The Wayward Youth of John Adams - New England Historical Society October 30, 2016 - 7:37 am

[…] Double Dating in Colonial New England […]

Moses Dunbar, The Other Connecticut Man Hanged in the Revolution - New England Historical Society June 11, 2017 - 3:35 pm

[…] be. I am now in Hartford jail condemned to death for high treason against the State of Connecticut. I was thirty years last June, the 14th. God bless you. Remember your Father and Mother and be dutiful to your present […]

Mary Webster, the Witch of Hadley, Survives a Hanging - New England Historical Society October 4, 2017 - 8:08 am

[…] Double Dating in Colonial New England […]

The Great 1727 Earthquake and the Wrath of God - New England Historical Society October 28, 2017 - 9:20 am

[…] Double Dating in Colonial New England […]

Stephen Hopkins, Jamestown Settler, Mayflower Pilgrim – and Shakespeare Character? - New England Historical Society December 4, 2017 - 8:36 am

[…] Double Dating in Colonial New England […]

Church Write-Up: Tomato Wisdom, Son of Solomon, Isaiah 9, the Magi | James' Ramblings December 17, 2018 - 8:44 am

[…] was moved from March 25, which was the church’s feast of the Annunciation, to January 1 (see here), placing Christianity more to the margins. And, like Solomon, we […]

Alice Bishop, Pilgrim Murderess, Kills her 4-Year-Old Daughter - New England Historical Society May 29, 2020 - 5:15 am

[…] Alice first appears in the historical record as “Alice Martin” on the day she married George Clarke–Jan. 22, 1639 (N.S.). […]

Comments are closed.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive the latest artciles from the New England Historical Society

Thanks for Signing Up!

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join Now and Get The Latest Articles. 

It's Free!

You have Successfully Subscribed!