| Scotland is now famous the world over for its
New Year celebrations with extravagant street parties and ancient customs gaining
large amounts of publicity. However, it wasn't until 1600 that the year actually
changed when you moved from 31 December to 1 January. Before that the year changed
on 25 March. Evidence of this can be found in many documents held by the National
Archives of Scotland (NAS). Below are extracts from minutes of the Kirk Session
of St John's Church in Perth which demonstrate what used to happen (transcriptions
are given at the foot of the page). 
|
This first image from page 71 of the minute book shows the minutes
dated as 19 March 1598. On page 72, the minutes from a week later are dated 26
March 1599. 
The change of New Year's Day to 1 January was imposed by an act
of the Privy Council of Scotland on 17 December 1599 (PC1/17). The
act commanded that royal officials, clerks, judges, notaries, and
others in all tyme heireftir date all thair decreittis infeftmentis
charteris seasings letteris and writtis quhatsumeuir according to
this p[rese]nt ordinance, Compting the first day of the yeir fra
the first day of Januare yeirlie.
The extracts below demonstrate this change in Scotland. The first image shows the minute book entry on page 124 as 17 December 1599 and four pages further on the date 7 January 1600 is written - with a flourish. The corresponding change, so that the year no longer started on 25 March, was only made in England and Ireland in 1752 as part of the adoption thoughout the British Isles and colonies of the Gregorian calendar under Chesterfield's Act (24 Geo II., c. 23). This revised the way that leap years were calculated, and dropped 11 days in order to bring the calendar year back into line with the solar year.
The Gregorian calendar was introduced by a bull of Pope Gregory
XIII of 24 February 1582. It is this bull which allows for the year
2000 being a leap year, in common with only every fourth of the
end-years of successive centuries. When the Gregorian calendar was
introduced in Britain, 2 September 1752 was followed by 14 September
1752, to cope with the discrepancy between the solar and calendar
years. These eleven cancelled days may explain why the tax year
begins on 6 April, having previously been 25 March.
Further readingThe Scottish Archive Network (SCAN)
website has amongst its research tools a Knowledge Base. In the Knowledge Base
is an entry on the topic of days, dates and calendars.
If you are interested
in learning how to read the form of Scottish handwriting shown in the documents
visit our palaeography website Scottish Handwriting.com which provides online
tuition for individuals using documents for the period 1500-1750. Kirk session
records can be viewed in the search
rooms of the NAS and, in some cases, local authority archives. The
NAS online
catalogue and the SCAN catalogue provide information on where church
records are held. TranscriptionEach entry from the minute book starts
with the date and then lists the people who were present at the meeting. They
are transcribed in the order they are shown above. Decimo nono martij 1598
[19 March 1598]
Presentis
Mr Jhone malcome and mr viliame cowper minist[er]
Jhone Colt viliame robertsone Jhone Jaksone georg... 26 martij 1599 [26
March 1599]
Presentis
Mr Jhone malcome and mr viliame cowper minist[er]
Jhone Colt Andrew arnet viliame robertsone An...
Decimo septimo decembris
1599
Presentis
Mr Viliame cowper andd Mr Jhone malcom minist[er]is
Jhone hendersone Thomas jaksone Robert Mal[ ] Septimo Januarij 1600
Presentis
Mr Jhone malcome minister James dru[m]mond
Jhone Colt Georg
macgregour Wiliame robertsone | 
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