1752 was a Short Year

I'm interested in the eighteenth century because our part of the Tanfield Waggonway was laid down in 1725.   Reading a book about Charles Avison, I came across the statement that in England & Wales until 1752, New Years Day was on Lady Day, ie 25 March.   

Along with the change from the Julian to Gregorian calendar, parliament changed New Year's Day to 1 January from 1753 (in Scotland this change had been made in 1600).   So 1752 was a short year, from 25 March until 31 December; 11 days were also skipped in September.   A hangover from this change is the UK tax year, which starts on 5 April.

All dates in January, February & up to 24 March were recorded with the year number that had been in use during the previous 25 March until 31 December.   So we have to be careful when reading historical dates pre 1752.   For example, there is a story of a riot in October 1750 after which a rioter was arrested & awaited trial in January 1750!

All formal dates from 1155 until 1752 would be recorded on the Julian calendar.   If a date of, say, 12 February 1726 is recorded, we have to understand that this is 12 February 1727 relative to our current Gregorian calendar.   Nowadays, you may see someone's date of birth recorded as 3 March 1652/3 - so that's 1652 Julian which is 1653 Gregorian.

And just in case you get the hang of this, remember that on Tyneside we would have a fair few Scots who would change their year number on 1 January, and common people may well have followed this from 1600 (& have 2 New Year's Days until 1752).