Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-07-16

The date Of Aliens birth, as given on the
west tablet. calls for some special remark
There had prevailed divers opinions as
- Li..n pace but both this and the
true date of his birth were determined
beyond IA cavil in paper read before the
Litchfield (CD County Antiquarian Society
by Payne X. Kilbournc, Esqr, of Litchfeld.
This paper was rc-publishcd in the Burlin G.
ton Free Press Jan. |. 1858, DAILY Free
Press Dec. 80. 1857 1t is too long for us to
quote entire in this place. One extract is
enough for our present purpose.
5. "On the first page of the first book OF
Births, Marriages and Deaths, among the
Litchfield Town Records, occurs the follow
ing entry:
'Joscph Allen and Mary Baker were joyned in
marriage bye Rev. Mr.. Anthony Stoddard of
Woodbury., Jan. ye IL, l736-7.'
9TH. a subsequent entry on the same
page is as follows
ethan Allen, yc of Joseph Allen and Mary
his wife, was born January ye 10, l737-s""
Many of our readers will be puzzled, by the
peculiar designation of the year, ri., 1873,
and be ready to ask, what does that mean ?
An explanation OF it is important. Fifty
years ago nothing was more common than to
hear elderly persons speak of an event as
having occurred at a certain date, SOLD
STYLE The distinction between sold
STYLE and New STYLE" is rarely alluded to
in our day, and if understood is still more
rarely applied to any ancient date 1t is
necessary to apply it to tho present case.
We shall not stop to expound the Gregg
rian Calendar, which for two hundred and
seventy years has been in use in large part
OF Christendom, and in England and this
country for more than hundred years. All
that it is necessary to state about it here is,
that, it was found out some hundred years
ago, that the Calendar time of tho Equinores
and Solstices did not agree with the time Of
their actual occurrence, as it once did,-that
the disagreement had reached to several days,
and was increasing. The Gregorian Calen-
dar, now in use, was arranged to prevent the
continuance of that disagreement. 10 cor
rect the error already made, by act of the
English Parliament eiepen days were struck
out of count in the month ofSeptember 1852,
the day next after the hird being called the
fourteenth 4; and of course the whole year, ac-
cording to the old calendar, was shoped back,
50 to speak, eleren days.
But this was not all hat was done. There
were in use in England and this country, at
that time, two different years-one the HIS
toy1cal year, SO called, the beginning of which
was January the other the C,rH or Leqal
ar, which began on the 25h Of March.
When the above mentioned change was made,
it was further provided by the same Act of
Parliament that the Girl or Legal year
should thereafter agree with the Historical
year-that is, should begin January | and
thus end the confusion of dates. The follow
ing quotation from tract on the month of |
March, in the New Curiosities of Litera-
ture, will show how this confusion was man
aged.
THE confusion is indeed manifest, almost |
too much 30 to need being pointed out. For |
example in describing the year between the |
LIST of January and the 25th of March,
civilians called each day within that period,
one year earlier than historians;
The former wrote-January It'll 1868
The latter wrote-January It'll 1853.
Though both described the 25th of the fol-
lowing March, and all the ensuing months, as
being in the year 1863. To prevent the mis-
takes incident to so complex an arrangement,
the doubtful part of each year was usually
written with both modes, by placing two
figures at the end the upper being the Grill
u Legal year and the lower the Historical;
Lhus
feb'y Sd, lei list, yeai wear
Hence, whenever the var is SO written,
he lower figure always indicates the year
low used in the calendar"
With n change in the day of the month
nd the change of the BEGINNING of the Cic.i
rear from March 25th to January LIST, began