Calendar (New Style) Act 1750
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1750 c. 23 |
| Year | 1750 |
(24 Geo. 2) C A P. XXIII.
'W H E R E A S the legal Supputation of the Year of our Lord in that Part ofGreat Britain called England , according to which the Year beginneth on the twenty-fifth Day of March , hath been found by Experience to be attended with divers Inconveniencies, not only as it differs from the Usa of neighbouring Nations, but also from the legal Method of Computation in that Part of Great Britain called Scotland , and from the common Usage throughout the whole Kingdom, and thereby frequent Mistakes are occasioned in the Dates of Deeds, and other Writings, and Disputes arise therefrom: And whereas the Calendar now in Use throughout all his Majesty's British Dominions, commonly called The Julian Calendar , hath been discovered to be erroneous, by means whereof the Vernal or Spring Equinox, which at the Time of the General Council of Nice in the Year of our Lord three hundred and and twenty-five, happened on or about the twenty-first Day of March , now happens on the ninth or tenth Day of the same month; and the said Error is still increasing, and if not remedied, would, in Process of Time, occasion the several Equinoxes and Solstices to shall at very different Times in the Civil Year from what they formerly did, which might tend to mislead Persons ignorant of the said Alteration: And whereas a Method of correcting the Calendar in such manner, as that the Equinoxes and Solstices may for the future fall nearly on the same nominal Days, on which the same happened at the Time of the said General Council, hath been received and established, and is now generally practised by almost all other Nations of Europe : And whereas it will be of general Convenience to Merchants, and other Persons corresponding with other Nations and Countries, and tend to prevent Mistakes and Disputes in or concerning the Dates of Letters, and Accounts, if the like Correction be received and established in his Majesty's Dominions:' May it therefore please your Majesty, that it may be enacted; and be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That in and throughout all his Majesty's Dominions and Countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and America , belonging or subject to the Crown of Great Britain , the said Supputation, according to which the Year of our Lord beginneth on the twenty-fifth Day of March , shall not be made use of from and after the last Day of December one thousand seven hundred and fifty-one; and that the first Day of January next following the said last Day of December shall be reckoned, taken, deemed and accounted to be the first Day of the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two; and the first Day of January , which shall happen next after the said first Day of January one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two, shall be reckoned, taken, deemed and accounted to be the first Day of the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three; and so on, from Time to Time, the first Day ofJanuary in every Year, which shall happen in Time to come, shall be reckoned, taken, deemed and accounted to be the first Day of the Year; and that each new Year shall accordingly commence, and begin to be reckoned, from the first Day of every such Month of January next preceding the twenty-fifth Day of March , on which such Yearwould, according to the present Supputation, have begun or commenced: And that from and after the said first Day ofJanuary one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two, the several Days of each Month shall go on, and be reckoned and numbered in the same Order; and the Feast of Easter , and other moveable Feasts thereon depending, shall be ascertained according to the same Method, as they now are, until the second Day of September in the said Year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two inclusive; and that the natural Day next immediately following the said second Day of September , shall be called, reckoned and accounted to be the fourteenth Day of September , omitting for that Time only the eleven intermediate nominal Days of the common Calendar; and that the several natural Days, which shall follow and succeed next after the said fourteenth Day of September , shall be respectively called, reckoned and numbered forwards in numerical Order from the said fourteenth Day of September , according to the Order and Succession of Days now used in the present Calendar; and that all Acts, Deeds, Writings, Notes and other Instruments of what Nature or Kind soever, whether Ecclesiastical or Civil, Publick or Private, which shall be made, executed or signed, upon or after the said first Day of January one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two, shall bear Date according to the said new Method of Supputation, and that the two fixed TermsofSt. Hilary and St. Michael , in that Part of Great Britain called England , and the Courts of Great Sessions in the Counties Palatine, and in Wales , and also the Courts of General Quarter Sessions and General Sessions of the Peace, and all other Courts of what Nature or Kind soever, whether Civil, Criminal or Ecclesiastical, and all Meetings and Assemblies of any Bodies Politick or Corporate, either for the Election of any Officers or Members thereof, or for any such Officers entering upon the Execution of their respective Offices, or for any other Purpose whatsoever, which by any Law, Statute, Charter, Custom or Usage within this Kingdom, or within any other the Dominions or Countries subject or belonging to the Crown of Great Britain , are to be holden and kept on any fixed or certain Day of any Month, or on any Day depending upon the Beginning, or any certain Day of any Month (except such Courts as are usually holden or kept with any Fairs or Marts) shall, from Time to Time, from and after the said second Day ofSeptember , be holden and kept upon or according to the same respective nominal Days and Times, whereon or according to which the same are now to be holden, but which shall be computed according to the said new Method of numbering and reckoning the Days of the Calendar as aforesaid; that is to say, eleven Days sooner than the respective Days whereon the same are now holden and kept; any Law, Statute, Charter, Custom or Usage, to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.
II Hundredth Years, except every fourth hundred, to be common Years of 365 Days.
II. And for the continuing and preserving the Calendar or Method of Reckoning, and computing the Days of the Year in the same regular Course, as near as may be, in all Times coming; Be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That the several Years of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred, one thousand nine hundred, two thousand one hundred, two thousand two hundred, two thousand three hundred, or any other hundredth Years of our Lord, which shall happen in Time to come, except only every fourth hundredth Year of our Lord, whereof the Year of our Lord two thousand shall be the first, shall not be esteemed or taken to be Bissextile or Leap Years, but shall be taken to be common Years, consisting of three hundred and sixty-five Days, and no more; and that the Years of our Lord two thousand, two thousand four hundred, two thousand eight hundred, and every other fourth hundred Year of our Lord, from the said Year of our Lord two thousand inclusive, and also all other Years of our Lord, which by the present Supputation are esteemed to be Bissextile or Leap Years, shall for the future, and in all Times to come, be esteemed and taken to be Bissextile or Leap Years, consisting of three hundred and sixty-six Days, in the same Sort and Manner as is now used with respect to every fourth Year of our Lord.
'III. And whereas according to the Rule prefixed to the Book of Common Prayer of the Church ofEngland, Easter-day is always the first Sunday after the first Full Moon which happen next after the one and twentieth Day of March , and if the Full Moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter-day is the Sunday after; which Rule was made in Conformity to the Decree of the said General Council of Nice , for the Celebration of the said Feast of Easter : And whereas the Method of computing the Full Moons now used in the Church of England , and according to which the Table to find Easter for ever, prefixed to the said Book of Common Prayer, is formed, is by Process of Time become considerably erroneous: And whereas a Calendar, and also certain Tables and Rules for the fixing the true Time of the Celebration of the said Feast of Easter , and the finding the Times of the Full Moons on which the same dependeth, so as the same shall agree as nearly as may be with the Decree of the said General Council, and also with the Practice of foreign Countries, have been prepared, and are hereunto annexed:' Be it therefore further enacted by the Authorityaforesaid, That the said Feast ofEaster , or any of the moveable Feast thereon depending, shall, from and after the said second Day of September , be no longer kept or observed in that Part of Great Britain called England , or in any other the Dominions or Countries subject or belonging to the Crown of Great Britain , according to the said Method of Supputation now used, or the said Table prefixed to the said Book of Common Prayer; and that the said Table, and also the Column of Golden Numbers, as they are now prefixed to the respective Days of the Month in the said Calendar, shall be left out in all future Editions of the said Book of Common Prayer; and that the said new Calendar, Tables and Rules, hereunto annexed, shall be prefixed to all such future Editions...
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