THE COLONIAL CALENDAR

Early colonial New England used the Old Style or Julian calendar. In this calendar, the year began on 25 March and ended on the next 24 March. The bit of March between the 25th and the 31st was considered the first month, April was the second month, and so on. Thus, a date written as 15 (3) 1624 is the 15th day of the third month (May) of 1624.

Some parts of continental Europe had adopted the Gregorian calendar in use today, and increasingly the colonists used a double dating system between 1 January and 24 March. Thus, what had been written as, say, 15 (12) 1624 became 15 February 1624/5.

A further complication is that the Julian calendar was ten days behind the Gregorian calendar until ten days were added on 1 March 1699/1700. As an example, John Howland died on 23 February 1672 Old Style. This might be recorded as 23 (12) 1672 or 23 February 1672/3. Recalling that 1672 is a leap year, adding ten days to 23 February produces 4 March. Thus, the Julian date of his death is 4 Mar 1673.

In this genealogy I have left dates as they appear in the reference.