Hi Pam, I apologize for an overkill of detail, but the answer to your question is a little bit complicated. The short answer is that, in most respects, Scotland dropped the Julian Calendar and adopted the Gregorian Calendar */at exactly the same time as England/*. But in one small respect it was more than */150 years ahead/* of England. The Julian Calendar (established under Julius Caesar) was slightly out of whack with the solar calendar. The earth’s orbit around the sun takes about 365 ¼ days. The Julian Calendar had introduced leap years (every 4 years) which added one day to the month of February to compensate for that quarter day. But actually this slightly *_over_*compensated, so that calendar dates (very) slowly drifted ahead of the seasons. To correct this, a calendar adjustment was introduced to Catholic countries under the papacy of Gregory XIII (“the Gregorian Calendar”), effective October 1582 .It refined the formula that defined leap years. Every year that was divisible by*/four/* remained a leap year, /*except for*//**/ years that were exactly divisible by */one hundred/*. Those ‘centurial’ years would be treated as leap years only if they were exactly divisible by */four hundred/*. So 1700, 1800, and 1900 were no longer treated as leap years, but the year 2000 was. Also, as a one-off change, to eliminate slippage that had already occurred, the calendar was moved forward by 10 days. Thursday, 4 October 1582 was followed by Friday, 15 October 1582 Protestant countries did not adopt this change immediately.But in 1752, both England and Scotland (which by then were joined as the United Kingdom) did so together. By that time, further time slippage meant that they had to omit */11/* (not 10) days from their calendar to put the date back in sync with the seasons (earth’s orbit), and to align it with that used by most European countries by that time. This change occurred effective the end of 2 September 1752; the next day became 14 September 1752. The only difference between England and Scotland was in 1599. Until then, both countries treated March 25 as the start of a new year.The day after March 24 1500, for example, was March 25 */1501/*. Scotland (which was then a separate country) decided that it made more sense for the start of the calendar year to be January 1 (the nativity).So it decreed that January 1, 1599 (“Old Style”) should be called January 1, */1600/* (“New Style”), and so on going forward. Overlapping “Old Style” and “New Style” forms of dating the first three months of the year lasted for several generations [e.g. "January 27 1731/2", or "March 13 1648/9"]. Catholic countries had already changed New year's day to January 1 as part of the Gregorian reform. England did not catch up with Scotland, and adopt this “New Style” until 1752. By the way, this change is why September, October, November and December (named after the Latin for seven, eight, nine and ten) are actually now the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth month of our year. But, in Scotland (like England), the definition of leap years, and the 11 days out of synch, remained as per the */Julian /*Calendar until 1752. John On 7/11/2015 9:43 PM, PMR via wrote: > Greetings Listers > > I know that the move from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar took effect in England on 1 Jan 1752. > > Was it effective on the same date in Scotland - or did it happen earlier? (I have a bell ringing that it may have been earlier than England, but I can't verify it). > > Many thanks. > > Pam > Beaudesert, Queensland, Australia --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

What an excellent explanation! Thank you very much, John. Jose Sent from my iPad > On 12 Jul 2015, at 07:57, John Humphrey via <ayrshire@rootsweb.com> wrote: > > Hi Pam, > > I apologize for an overkill of detail, but the answer to your question > is a little bit complicated. > > The short answer is that, in most respects, Scotland dropped the Julian > Calendar and adopted the Gregorian Calendar */at exactly the same time > as England/*. But in one small respect it was more than */150 years > ahead/* of England. > > The Julian Calendar (established under Julius Caesar) was slightly out > of whack with the solar calendar. The earth’s orbit around the sun takes > about 365 ¼ days. The Julian Calendar had introduced leap years (every 4 > years) which added one day to the month of February to compensate for > that quarter day. But actually this slightly *_over_*compensated, so > that calendar dates (very) slowly drifted ahead of the seasons. > > To correct this, a calendar adjustment was introduced to Catholic > countries under the papacy of Gregory XIII (“the Gregorian Calendar”), > effective October 1582 .It refined the formula that defined leap years. > Every year that was divisible by*/four/* remained a leap year, /*except > for*//**/ years that were exactly divisible by */one hundred/*. Those > ‘centurial’ years would be treated as leap years only if they were > exactly divisible by */four hundred/*. So 1700, 1800, and 1900 were no > longer treated as leap years, but the year 2000 was. Also, as a one-off > change, to eliminate slippage that had already occurred, the calendar > was moved forward by 10 days. Thursday, 4 October 1582 was followed by > Friday, 15 October 1582 > > Protestant countries did not adopt this change immediately.But in 1752, > both England and Scotland (which by then were joined as the United > Kingdom) did so together. By that time, further time slippage meant that > they had to omit */11/* (not 10) days from their calendar to put the > date back in sync with the seasons (earth’s orbit), and to align it with > that used by most European countries by that time. This change occurred > effective the end of 2 September 1752; the next day became 14 September > 1752. > > The only difference between England and Scotland was in 1599. Until > then, both countries treated March 25 as the start of a new year.The day > after March 24 1500, for example, was March 25 */1501/*. Scotland (which > was then a separate country) decided that it made more sense for the > start of the calendar year to be January 1 (the nativity).So it decreed > that January 1, 1599 (“Old Style”) should be called January 1, */1600/* > (“New Style”), and so on going forward. Overlapping “Old Style” and “New > Style” forms of dating the first three months of the year lasted for > several generations [e.g. "January 27 1731/2", or "March 13 1648/9"]. > > Catholic countries had already changed New year's day to January 1 as > part of the Gregorian reform. England did not catch up with Scotland, > and adopt this “New Style” until 1752. By the way, this change is why > September, October, November and December (named after the Latin for > seven, eight, nine and ten) are actually now the ninth, tenth, eleventh > and twelfth month of our year. > > But, in Scotland (like England), the definition of leap years, and the > 11 days out of synch, remained as per the */Julian /*Calendar until 1752. > > > John > > > > > >> On 7/11/2015 9:43 PM, PMR via wrote: >> Greetings Listers >> >> I know that the move from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar took effect in England on 1 Jan 1752. >> >> Was it effective on the same date in Scotland - or did it happen earlier? (I have a bell ringing that it may have been earlier than England, but I can't verify it). >> >> Many thanks. >> >> Pam >> Beaudesert, Queensland, Australia > > > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to AYRSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message