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Dates in Old Parish Registers

Dates in English & Welsh parish registers sometimes have two years shown. What about Scotland's Old Parish Registers?

Using the old Julian calendar, each new year began in the spring, on 25 March, instead of on 1 January, as with the present Gregorian calendar. Calendar reform began in continental Europe, and King James VI of Scotland proclaimed that it should take place in Scotland on 1 January 1600. With the Union of the Crowns in 1603, James went on to become King James I of England & Wales, but south of the Border the calendar change did not take place until nearly 150 years later, in 1752.

In many old legal documents in England & Wales, therefore, dates in the months of January, February and early March are referred to with two years, eg 1 January 1699/1700, and this has been the cause of much confusion. Scots legal documents of the period can sometimes reflect this double-dating too, probably because contemporary lawyers were used to working with both systems.

Scotland's Old Parish Registers are however unequivocal. A date of 1 January 1700 means precisely that.

When calendar reform belatedly came to England, it did nevertheless affect Scotland also, for it occasioned a minor re-alignment of dates. Neither the English Julian calendar nor the Scots Gregorian calendar in use had accurately taken into account the length of the year, and differences had persisted between Britain and other countries in Europe. An adjustment was needed, and Parliament decided that the date should jump directly from 2 to 14 September 1752, with no intervening days numbered 3 to 13. This change caused riots in places in England & Wales, where some people felt that eleven days were being stolen from their lives. In Scotland there seem to have been no such problems.

The page below from the Old Parish Register for Inveraray and Glenaray in Argyll includes a contemporary note of the change to the calendar. (Reference OPR 513, vol 2, p 196)