Calendar Act of 1750
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| Long title | An Act for Regulating the Commencement of the Year; and for Correcting the Calendar now in Use |
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| Citation | 24 Geo. 2 c. 23 |
| Introduced by | Lord Chesterfield |
| Territorial extent | "In and throughout all his Majesty’s dominions and countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America" Territorial extent of (original) subsequent repeals (to (i.e., after) the Anniversary Days Observance Act 1859): England and Wales, Scotland |
| Dates | |
| Commencement | 1 January 1752 |
| Other legislation | |
| Amended by | Calendar Act 1751, Anniversary Days Observance Act 1859, Statute Law Revision Act 1948, Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1971, Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1986 |
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Status: Spent
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| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Text of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk | |
The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 (c.23) (also known as Chesterfield's Act after Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. The Act had two parts: first it reformed the calendar of England and the British Dominions so that the new legal year began on 1 January rather than 25 March (Lady Day); and second Great Britain and its Dominions adopted (in effect) the Gregorian calendar , as already used in most of western Europe.
The Parliament held that the Julian calendar then in use, and the start of the year on 25 March, were
In England and Wales, the legal year 1751 was a short year of 282 days, running from 25 March to 31 December. 1752 began on 1 January. To align the calendar in use in England to that on the continent, the Gregorian calendar was adopted: and the calendar was advanced by 11 days: Wednesday 2 September 1752 was followed by Thursday 14 September 1752. The year 1752 was thus a short year (355 days) as well.
As well as adopting the Gregorian rule for leap years, Pope Gregory's rules for the date of Easter were also adopted. However, with religious strife still on their minds, the British could not bring themselves to adopt the Catholic system explicitly: the Annexe to the Act established a computation for the date of Easter that achieved the same result as Gregory's rules, without actually referring to him. The algorithm, set out in the Book of Common Prayer as required by the Act, includes calculation of the Golden Number and the Sunday Letter, which (in the Easter section of the Book) were presumed to be already known. The Annexe to the Act includes the definition: "Easter-day (on which the rest depend) is always the first Sunday after the Full Moon, which happens upon, or next after the Twenty-first Day of March. And if the Full Moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter-day is the Sunday after." The Annexe subsequently uses the terms "Paschal Full Moon" and "Ecclesiastical Full Moon", making it clear that they only approximate to the real Full Moon.
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