A Confusion of Dates

Three Calendars:
The Julian, The Gregorian, and the “Quaker Calendar”

or
How 1st mon, 12th day, 1676 Actually Means March 22, 1677
or
1mo 12day, 1676 in one context means March 12, 1676 and in another context March 12, 1677


Imagine a scenario as follows:

One record shows that John Doe married Elizabeth Roe on 1st month, 18th day, 1702. Another record shows that Elizabeth Roe died on 1st month, 10th day, 1702. The rational conclusion is that either (1) there are two different women named Elizabeth Roe or (2) one of the dates is wrong. But there is a third possibility, viz., (3) that there was only one Elizabeth Roe and that the calendar used to date the marriage is different from the calendar system used to date death of Elizabeth Roe.

So, let us explore the basis for the third explanation.




I. The first problem stems from the Quaker tradition of avoiding the use of the pagan names for the months. To avoid pagan names, they numbered the months, 1st month, 2nd month, ... 12th month. This leads us to the problem.

Until 1752, England and its Colonies dated events according to the Julian Calendar. According to the Julian Calendar, as it was observed in England and the Colonies, March was the 1st month of the year and February was the 12th month of the year. So in general, for any year prior to 1752 when the modern Gregorian Calendar was adopted, "12th month, 12th day", would be translated as "February 12" rather than as "December 12".

The tradition of calling March the 1st month is consistent with the meanings of the (Latin) sept-seven, octa-eight, nonus-ninth, and (Greek) deca-ten. Thus, the Julian Calendar September is the 7th month, October is the 8th month, November is the 9th month, and December is the 10th month. Continuing the sequence, January is the 11th month and February is the 12th month.

Another aspect of this problem is that in England and its Colonies, March 25 was considered the first day of the year. So the date 12mo, 12day, 1656 should be understood as part of the same year that te previous December and November were part of, namely, 1656.



II. The second problem is that some countries, Scotland for example, considered the new year to begin on January 1. Thus February 23, 1675 in Scotland would equal to Feb. 23, 1674 in England. To avoid this confusion of years, some but not all of those using the English Julian Calendar with March as the 1st month of the year, adopted the convention of double years for the period from Jan 1 to March 24. Thus, when George Washington was born, his mother noted the date in her Bible as "11th day of 173 1/2" indicating that George Washington was born in 1732 according to the calendar that begins the new year on January 1 but born in 1831 according to the calendar that begins the new year on March 25.




III. The third problem is that Quakers sometimes used a Calendar that differed from both the English custom of beginning the year on March 25 and from the Scottish custom of beginning the year on January 1. Many Quakers, such as George Fox and William Penn, began the year on March 1.

For example, the Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania on page 66 are dated "ye 24th of 1st Mo., 1683." These are followed on page 67 by minutes dated "26th 1St 1683." Obviously the year number did not change on the 25th of the first month (March 25). Also on page 97 where "ye 24th of ye 1st Mo., 1684," is followed by "The 26th day y 1 st month, 1684."

Other examples showing that the year did not change on March 25 are abundant. See the article by Samuel Barton, cited below, for more examples.

Now we have the resources to resolve the problem of the death of Elizabeth Roe occuring on March 10, 1702 and her marriage to John Doe happening on March 18, 1702.

Suppose the record of the marriage uses the Quaker Calendar in which the first day of the year is the first day of March. On this assumption the marriage took place on March 18, 1702. The official Julian Calendar places the date of the marriage is 1st mo 18th day, 1701 since the first day of 1702 does not occur until March 25. The record for Elizabeth Roe's death refers to the official Julian Calenedar date of her death, i.e., 1st mo 10th day 1702, almost a year after the marriage. Since March 1st is the first day of a new year by the Quaker Calendar, Elizabeth Roe according to this calendar, died on 1st mo, 10th day 1703. Again almost one year after her marriage.



VI. The fourth problem. To fully understand, or at least to translate Julian dates to our own Gregorian Calendar we must add some days. According to the Julian Calendar the average year is 365.25 days. Every year is 365 days except that every fourth year is a leap year with an extra day making it 366 days. But this meant that the Julian Calendar adds a day about every 130 years in comparison with the modern Gregorian Calendar which includes a leap year every four years except at the turn of each century, which are leap years only if the year is divisible by 400 (e.g., 1600, 2000, and 2400). This makes the average Gregorian year 365.24250 days, i.e., 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 12 seconds.

The Nicaean Council of 325 C.E. had determined that the vernal equinox should occur on March 21st of every year. But the Julian Calendar rule of adding an extra day to the calendar every four years, resulted in the date of the vernal equinox occurring on March 10, 1752 rather than on March 21, 1752 -- a "slippage" of eleven days.

Most of the Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian Calendar upon its promulgation in the sixteenth century. And by 1701 just about all of the continent of Europe had adopted it. By the time King George II of England, ordered the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in 1751, it was necessary that eleven days be dropped--jumping from September 2, 1752 to September 14, 1752 (that is skipping September 3, 4, 5...13 for a total of eleven days).

Because of the "loss of days" required to return the equinox to March 21, there are two steps involved in transcribing the Quaker 12mo, 12day, 1656 or any other Julian Calendar date to a modern Gregorian date. The first step is to understand that the Julian calendar 12th month is February. As a corollary, since the modern calendar begins each year on January 1 rather than on March 1 or on 25, the Julian 11th and 12th month, 1656 should be understood as equivalent to the Gregorian date of February 1657.

The second step is to calculate the appropriate day of the month. At the time The Society of Friends or Quakers came into existence and started keeping records, the Julian Calendar was ten days off. Thus 12mo, 12day, 1656 on the Julian Calendar is equal to February 22, 1657 on the Gregorian Calendar. After 1700 (a leap year on the Julian but not on the Gregorian Calendar), eleven days need to be added to the Julian date to determine the Gregorian date. And, of course, February 29 (or 12th month, 29th day, 1700) should be rendered as March 11, 1701.


References

Samuel G. Barton, The Quaker Calendar in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 93, No. 1 (April 18, 1949) pp. 32-39.

The Perpetual Calendar