The year end had been Lady Day, the 25th March, until 1752 when Julian Calendar went out of use in Brittain and was replaced by the Gregorian Calendar. There was a discrepancy of 11 days between the two so the day after September 3rd was set as September 14th but this caused a problem with accounting for annual dues and interest so the eleven days were added to the old year end and the financial year end became April 5th. Today this is still the date used for calculating some yearly figures, especially income tax but some changed to 31st March, losing five days, whilst others opted to make one "annual" calculation for 9 months pro rata and reset their end of year to December 31st in line with the calendar year.
Before 1752 dates for events from January to March were sometimes written, for example, March 2nd 1712/1713 indicating the March at the end of the year 1712 and this was called "Old Style". For most of our transcription work we will have upgraded the year for January to March to the "New Style".
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