Thirty Days Hath September… Except When It Doesn’t (episode 309)

Transcript

Introduction to Boston’s Calendar Change

Jake:
[0:04] Welcome to Hub History where we go far beyond the Freedom Trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston, the hub of the universe. This is episode 309, 30 days. Hath September, except when it doesn’t.

Jake:
[0:21] Hi, I’m Jake. This week, I’m gonna talk about the September calendar. We all know the old mnemonic device, right? 30 days. Hath September, April, June and November. But what if September suddenly had only 19 days? That’s exactly what Boston experienced in 1752 when the town went to bed on September 2nd and woke up on the 14th. It sounds like something that would end up having a supernatural explanation like a mass alien abduction or maybe something contaminated the water supply to make the entire town go into a brief coma. But the real explanation is more pedestrian. Almost two centuries after most of Europe had switched to a new calendar system, the British Empire was finally following suit including its overseas colonies like Massachusetts. How do you think Bostonians adapted to the change? Were they as confused as I would be if my calendar suddenly changed? Did Bostonians riot demanding their 11 days back How did the generation that lived through this change? Remember, key dates like their birthdays after the switch, stay tuned for those answers and more. But before we talk about Boston’s shortest month, I just want to pause and say a big thank you to our Patreon sponsors.

Jake:
[1:44] If you’ve been listening regularly this summer, you know that my job hunts dragged on longer than I expected. So I’m being especially conservative about expenses right now. Thanks to the ongoing monthly support of our Patreon sponsors. I know that I can keep making hub history without worrying about how to pay for things like subscriptions to research, databases, podcast media, hosting, web hosting and security for hubor.com and the A I tools that I’ve been using for transcription and summaries and for creating header images when I need them, to everyone who’s already supporting the show. Thank you. And if you’re not yet supporting the show and you’d like to start, it’s easy. Just go to patreon.com/hubor or visit hubor.com and click on the support us link and thanks again to all our new and returning sponsors.

John Adams and the Calendar Shift

Jake:
[2:37] And now it’s time for this week’s main topic.

Jake:
[2:41] The first time I gave any real thought to the 1752 calendar change is when I read a passage from the diary of John Adams, where he reflected on his 37th birthday. If you’ve been listening to the show for a long time, or if you followed me on Twitter back when I tweeted historical anniversaries every day, you’ll know that I’ve spent a lot of time reading the letters and diaries of John Adams. Over the years, the Adamses were a very wordy family. They saved their papers and their descendants in the mass historical society have done a great job of cataloging and digitizing the collection, on October 19th, 1772 John wrote in his diary the day of the month reminds me of my birthday, which will be on the 30th. I was born October 19th 1735 37 years. More than half the life of a man are run out. What an atom, an anima. I am. The remainder of my days. I shall rather decline and sense spirit and activity. My season for acquiring knowledge is past and yet I have my own and my children’s fortunes to make my boyish habits and hes are not yet worn off.

Jake:
[3:55] First of all, that melancholy reflection on his wasted life is very, very typical for atoms even when he was the sitting president of the United States. Decades later, he would gripe on his diary about a long life, very poorly spent my own estimation saying to me, it appears to have been too idle and active slothful and sluggish.

Jake:
[4:19] Second of all, what a wonderful formulation, my birthday will be on the 30th. I was born on October 19th.

Jake:
[4:30] At the point when he wrote that it had been 20 years since the calendar changed. So he’d been celebrating his new birthday for over half his life. Thinking about that mental adjustment made me wonder more broadly about how Boston adjusted to the new calendar.

The Old Calendar: A Brief History

Jake:
[4:45] Before we get into the details about how Boston adapted to the new calendar. Let’s talk a little bit about the old calendar and why a change was needed, that rhyming mnemonic device for remembering which months have, how many days goes back to a time when there was only one accepted calendar in Europe and the European colonies in the Americas. There are versions in Latin and other European languages from right around the same time. But the oldest version in English dates from about the 14 twenties when it goes like this 30 days. Hath November, April, June and September of 28 is but one and all the remnant 31.

Jake:
[5:28] That would be the last time that England and the rest of Europe would agree on the calendar for a couple of centuries. At that point, all of Europe used the Julian calendar, which was adopted during the reign of Julius Caesar. Based on the Roman calculation of the earth’s orbit around the sun is taking 365 and one quarter days. The Julian calendar incorporated a leap day in February every four years. However, because the true orbit takes something more like 365.2422 days. Well, the difference does add up over time, the discrepancy works out to one day every 129 years. So by the time the Catholic church held the Council of Trent in 1545 the date of the spring equinox which was supposed to fall on March 21st had moved forward by about 10 days. This mattered to Pope Paul the third who convened the council because the date of the equinox was used to set the date of the Easter feast day. That Council of Trent ordered that the calendar be recalculated to restore the equinox and hence Easter to the dates when they had fallen during the Council of Nysa in the year 325. To this end, the church consulted astronomers and mathematicians to recalculate the passage of time.

Jake:
[6:51] In the end, the changes boiled down to basically two things, a new system of leap years and deleting the extra days that had accumulated over the centuries to reset the equinox to March 21st.

Jake:
[7:06] The new system would be called the Gregorian calendar after Pope Gregory the 13th, who ordered it into effect in 1582. Sorry, Paul the third for the church, the papal states that were ruled by the church and most Catholic continental nations, 10 days were deleted from October in that year, resetting the calendar to the state.

The Gregorian Calendar Explained

Jake:
[7:28] It had been in 1300 years before to head off. Any future calendar drift, leap years would no longer be held strictly every four years. When I first read about it, the new system sounded hopelessly complicated but the US naval observatory has this simplified explanation every year. That’s exactly divisible by four is a leap year except for years that are exactly divisible by 100. But these centurion years are leap years if they are exactly divisible by 400. For example, the years, 1718 119 100 are not leap years. But the year 2000 is unfortunately, for the historians who have to make sense of it, this all took place just about 50 years after Henry the eighth led England out of the Catholic church and installing himself as the head of the new church of England. From his ascent in 1531 until at least the 17 seventies, Britain and its colonies were rabidly anti Catholic.

Jake:
[8:35] We discussed this ancient bias in Boston’s anti Catholic Pope Night riots way back in episode 75.

Jake:
[8:43] With the English reformation and Britain’s resulting prejudices as a background. There was no way that the nation was gonna follow the Catholic States in Europe in adopting the new calendar in England, the legal year started on March 25th which was annunciation day. Though the Julian calendar been pegged to January 1st because that’s when Roman consuls took office under Julius Caesar, England and many other European countries had adopted legal years starting on major church holidays in the middle ages. So by the 17 hundreds, England’s calendar was 11 days off from most of Europe and their new year was three months off.

Jake:
[9:27] The 1750 Act of Parliament that officially updated the calendar for the British Empire starts with an introduction, laying out the reasons a new calendar was needed. The legal supplication of the year of our Lord in England according to which the year begin on the 25th day of March. Hath been found by experience to be attended with diverse inconveniences, not only is it differs from the usage of neighboring nations, but also from the legal method of computation in Scotland and from the common

The 1750 Act of Parliament

Jake:
[9:56] usage throughout the whole kingdom. And thereby frequent mistakes are occasioned. The dates of deeds and other writings and disputes arise there. Fromm side note, this section is referring to the fact that Scotland had legally started treating January 1st as the start of the New Year in 1600 before taking James the first as their king and a century before uniting in a single kingdom with England.

Jake:
[10:22] Similarly, many people in England and New England were already commonly treating January 1st as the start of the new year for commercial reasons. Despite the legal new year falling in March, the act continues the calendar now in use throughout all. His Majesty’s British dominions commonly called the Julian calendar. Hath been discovered to be erroneous by means whereof the vernal or spring equinox which at the time of the General Council of Nysa in the year of our Lord, 325 happened on or about the 21st day of March. Now happens on the ninth or 10th day of the same month and the said error is still increasing, and if not remedied would in process of time occasion, the several equinoxes and solstices to fall at very different times in the civil year from what they formerly did, which might tend to mislead persons ignorant of the said alteration.

Jake:
[11:20] A method of correcting the calendar in such manner as that the equinoxes and solstices may for the future fall nearly on the same nominal days on which the same happened at the time of the said General Council have been received and established and is now generally practiced by almost all other nations of Europe. It will be of general convenience to merchants and other persons corresponding with other nations and countries and tend to prevent mistakes and disputes in or concerning the dates of letters and accounts. If the like correction be received and established in his Majesty’s dominions.

Jake:
[11:56] Even if you weren’t corresponding with other nations and countries. Just the discrepancy in the start of the year could lead to major confusion, in a 2018 blog post about celebrating New Year’s JL Bell provides an example of the confusion that could arise when the year legally started in March but was commonly accepted to start on January 1st. In March 1720 Governor Samuel Shute proclaimed that the last day of the month would be a fast day. The Boston newsletter presented that news in its issue dated 7 to 14, March 1720. The Boston Gazette printed the same proclamation and its issue dated 7 to 14 March 1719. While the difference in the start of the year caused one set of problems. The growing date discrepancy with the other nations of Europe caused another.

Jake:
[12:51] In a 2000 article in the Catholic historical review, Malcolm Freiburg illustrates the confusion that could result when Protestant New Englanders corresponded with Catholic nations. In this case, indigenous nations in Maine who have been influenced by Catholic French colonizers for over a century. Colonial American practice reflected Protestant English usage.

The Confusion of New Year’s Day

Jake:
[13:14] New Year’s Day was January 1st that month February and most of March were identified by double dating with foreign correspondent, usually being apprised of any calendar differences. So it was in the diary and letter books of Samuel Sewell and in the diary of Cotton Mather, although Mather paid more attention to his own February 12th birthday as a milestone than to January 1st, Massachusetts and New Hampshire commissioners to Maine Indians in 1725 carefully noted their different calendars writing to the Indians on July 10th, that their letter of July 20th had been received. The variations were, of course, those between old style of the commissioners and new style of the Indians.

Jake:
[14:02] When it finally came time to do something about the confusion. No mention of Pope Gregory the 13th or the Catholic origins of the new calendar were mentioned in the British law that established the new system. Instead, it’s framed as a way to ensure that Easter and other important Christian holidays would be correctly observed within the church of England. The new law was introduced into parliament on February 25th, 1750 under the old calendar, a date that would be March 8th, 1751 under today’s calendar. The law passed two months later and received the royal assent in May 1751 according to both calendars. Gary Smith explains the effect of the new calendar law. In a 2016 article for the blog of the Mass Law Library. The change was made in two steps. December 31st, 1751 was followed by January 1st 1752. The switch from March 25th to January 1st is the first day of the year. September 2nd 1752 was followed by September 14th, 1752 dropping 11 days in order to agree with the date of the Gregorian calendar. Furthermore, the method for calculating leap years was changed to the more accurate method of the Gregorian calendar.

Jake:
[15:21] Thanks to the new law, 1751 would only last for 282 days in the British Empire from March 25th to December 31st. Then New Year’s was celebrated on January 1st for the first time. That didn’t leave a lot of time to apprise the colonists in far away. Boston at the details of the new law before it actually went into effect. The provincial government didn’t receive an official copy of the new law until April 1752 after the change of New Year’s. And in the midst of a year, that would only consist of 355 days thanks to the 11 day adjustment in September.

News of the Calendar Change

Jake:
[15:59] While confusion would remain until the details of the act were known. Mark M Smith outlines how news of the law and its provisions spread in a 1998 article for the William and Mary Quarterly in New England. The Boston Evening Post reprinted specific extracts concerning the Act’s provisions for ascertaining rents, wages, births and ages as early as December 16th, 1751.

Jake:
[16:25] On December 23rd, 1751 the Boston Post Boy reprinted a large portion of the Act and published the remainder. A week later on October 17th, 1752 the Boston Gazetta Weekly journal belatedly summarized the Act and left readers in little doubt of its opinion of Britain’s long held commitment to the Julian calendar, all succeeding time is to be reckoned in the same order as formerly only that the year is ever hereafter to begin. Absolutely. On the first day of January yearly and the absurd method of beginning it on the 25th day of a month, March exploded. And that month, January is forever to be called the first month. All the fixed feasts of the church to be observed in their proper nominal days, which will make them 11 days earlier than heretofore. But all birthdays, apprentices and servants times periods of payment of money, either principal or interest or expiration of leases, et cetera are to have their natural days which seemingly will move them 11 days forward.

Jake:
[17:34] Besides newspapers, Bostonians learned about the new calendar from almanacs. Almanacs were an important tool in colonial America and a cheap way to benefit from scientific knowledge. These books were printed annually and contained monthly calendars, noting the phases of the moon as it waxed and waned eclipses. The time the moon and sun would arise and set each day. Sometimes tide tables, dates of important religious feasts and historical anniversaries as well as dates of legislative sessions and courts, plus usually poems and literary excerpts to entertain the reader. They helped predict trends in the weather and told farmers when to plant and harvest. So almanacs were one of the main ways that colonial Bostonians track time because seasons, sunrises and all the scientific data in an almanac was specific to a region. It was important to buy a local almanac which would probably include a line on the title page stating calculated for the meridian of Boston or something along those lines so that the reader knew where the math would hold true.

The Role of Almanacs in Boston

Jake:
[18:45] An article titled Notes On The Almanacs of Massachusetts by Charles L Nichols that was published in the proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society in 1912 notes, an oddity of our locally printed almanacs. A peculiarity of the early Massachusetts almanacs from 1639 to 1687 was the position of March as the first month. And February is the last in these year books while the month of March was the legal beginning of the year in England. While it had been from the time of Julius Caesar and continued to be until 1752 when the Gregorian calendar was there adopted. And while specific laws were enacted by the Commonwealth to further confirm this under the new rule of the people and no calendar known to me was this fact formally recognized by placing March in this position except in the Massachusetts colonies during these 48 years. No explanation of this peculiarity of our almanacs has been found. It may be that this was simply an effort towards absolute truthfulness of expression, or that it was one more proof the desire to separate themselves even in these ways from those whom they left in England.

Jake:
[20:01] With people. Relying on them almanacs had to be precise. And in his article in the Catholic historical review, Malcolm Freiburg explains how the Denham based publisher of the most popular almanac in the American colonies dropped the ball. In 1752 colonial almanacs reached a far wider audience than newspapers, annuals rather than weeklies cheaper in unit price than newspapers and widely available because they were printed in large editions. Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard series sold some 10,000 copies yearly. While the compilations of Nathaniel Ames, father and son had an annual distribution of 60,000 in New England almanac served admirably to diffuse throughout the American colonies. Knowledge of the calendar change alone of all the almanac publishers, Benjamin Franklin printed the complete text of the Calendar Act but not its tables and is poor. Richard improved almanac for 1752 advertised as just published on November 7th, 1751 other almanac makers contented themselves with printing only summaries or abstracts of the statute.

Jake:
[21:15] In Massachusetts. Poor Nathaniel Ames. The father was left behind alerting his 1752 customers. When this almanac was sent to the press. I had no certain account of the Act of Parliament for reducing the year to the new style.

Jake:
[21:31] A year later, he provided his readers with a summary of the act. Thenceforward Ames listed both old and new style dates for each year until his famous series concluded in 1775. So did Franklin until his poor rich and improved series ended in 1758 Harvard. Professor John Winthrop’s copy of the 1752 Ames almanac is in the Harvard collection and you can see how he hand corrected the dates starting with crossing out September 3rd and marking in the 14th and so continuing through the end of the year on December 31st, which falls in the date marked December 20th and Ames as printing, Winthrop was following Ames’s own advice.

Almanac Makers and the Calendar Act

Jake:
[22:16] Mark Smith’s article in the William and Mary Quarterly describes how the elder Ames advised his readers to compensate for his continuing to publish the almanac using the old Julian calendar through four months of Gregorian time. New England colonists pounced on those who got the details wrong on September 14th, 1752 John Draper, proprietor of the Boston newsletter published the following notice from Nathaniel Ames of Dedham.

Jake:
[22:47] As the new style commences tomorrow. And my almanac of 1752 is not conformable there too and mention is made in the last Monday’s evening post of my being wrong. I beg leave to make the following apology and desire. You would make the same public by inserting it into your paper. On that day being the 14th day of September 1752 new style.

Jake:
[23:11] Having cited the act verbatim ames explained now as my almanac goes on in the common way and does not conform to the act, I was in hopes my readers would have been satisfied with what I offered them and said almanac, namely that when the copy was sent to the press, I had no certain account of the said Act of Parliament. It would have been a great error in me indeed to have left out the 11 days of the common calendar at any other time than exactly where the said Act of Parliament had ordered. And it was not possible for me to conform to a law that I had never seen and so could not understand.

Jake:
[23:48] Ames’ advice to readers who had already bought his almanacs, however, was simple, adding 11 complete days to the day of the month as it now stands in. My almanac will give the day of the month new style, the legal supplication of the year.

Jake:
[24:04] The embarrassment of Nathaniel Ames must have been compounded when a competing almanac nailed the calendar change and not even one of his big competitors, Ben Franklin’s nephew, James Franklin published poor job’s almanac under the pin name job shepherd down in Newport because copyright protections were nearly non-existent at the time. A printer named Fowl made a blatant copy of Franklin’s poor job, adjusted the sunrise and sunset times for Boston and printed his own version titled An Almanac of Almanacs collected from poor job and others for the year of our Lord 1752, in a note addressed to the reader Fowell takes a shot at Ames writing instead of a preface. As usual, I’ve inserted an abstract of the late Act of Parliament which I doubt not will be more acceptable to the generality of readers. The reason I have for this collection is this the almanac spread amongst us have taken no notice that the month of September 1752 shall contain but 19 days which shortens this year, 11 days accepting poor job, I shall say no more but leave it to recommend itself. Signed the collector.

Jake:
[25:24] The almanac then quotes the Act of Parliament with an extensive footnote explaining the origins of the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Fowls almanac correctly outlines a 19 day month on the page for September which left plenty of room for another note kind reader. You have now such a year as you have never saw before, nor will see hereafter, the king and Parliament of Great Britain having thought proper to enact that the month of September 1752 shall contain but 19 days which will shorten this year 11 days and have extended the same throughout the British dominions

The Official Copy of the Act

Jake:
[26:03] so that we are not to have two beginnings to our years. But the first of January is to be the first day and first month of the year. 1752 11 days are taken from September and begin 1 to 1415 et cetera.

Jake:
[26:21] Be not much astonished nor look with concern. Dear reader at such a deduction of days, nor regret as for the loss of so much time. But take this for your consolation that your expenses will perhaps appear lighter and your mind be more at ease. And what an indulgence is here for those who love their pillows to lie down in peace on the second of this month and not perhaps awake or be disturbed till the 14th in the morning. And reader, this is not to hasten the payment of debts, freedom of apprentices or servants or the coming to age of minors. But the number of natural days in all agreements are to be fulfilled. All church holidays and courts are to be on the same nominal days as they were before, but fairs after the second of September after the nominal days and so seem to be held 11 days later.

Jake:
[27:15] With almanac makers scrapping over rumors and unofficial copies of the new law, Malcolm Freiburg’s article going Gregorian in the Catholic historical review relates how the province finally got an official copy of the Bill. Britain sent printed copies of the calendar legislation to the colonies scandalously laid on April 15th 1752. By which time its contents were already known in America. In January 1752 3 months earlier, Massachusetts ordered that the 1751 calendar act be printed and bound up with the laws of this province for the better information of the inhabitants thereof.

Jake:
[27:57] The copy of the bill that appears in the 1752 laws of the province is mostly identical to the act of parliament, starting with the name an act for regulating the commencement of the year and for correcting the calendar. Now in use after an introduction, the first section describes how to calculate the 11 day correction in September and the new start of the year in January. Then it goes on to outline how broadly the new calendar law should be applied.

Jake:
[28:26] All courts of what nature are kind, soever whether civil, criminal or ecclesiastical and all meetings and assemblies of anybody’s politic or corporate, either for the election of any officers or members thereof or for any such officers entering upon the execution of their respective offices or for any other purpose whatsoever which by any law, statute charter, customer usage within this kingdom or within any other, the dominions or countries subject or belonging to the Crown of Great Britain are to be holden and kept on any fixed or certain day of any month or on any day, depending on the beginning or any certain day of any month, except such courts as are usually Holden or kept with any fairs or marts shall from time to time from and after the said second day of September, be Holden and kept upon or according to the same respective nominal days and times. Whereon or according to which the same are now to be Holden, which shall be computed according to the said new method of numbering and reckoning the days of the calendar as aforesaid. That is to say 11 days sooner than the respective days where on the same are now holding kept any law statute charter customer usage to the contrary thereof in any wise, notwithstanding. Oh, that’s a mouthful.

Jake:
[29:48] Similarly, wordy sections deal with the new dates of Easter and other Christian holidays as well as traditional fast days, the opening and closing of common pasture land and the dates of fairs and market days.

Jake:
[30:02] Proving that Boston landlords never change the last section outlines how the loss of 11 days in a month should affect the payment of rent, the expiration of contracts and indentures and other financial details. The new law, it’s on the long side, but I’m gonna try to read the whole thing. It is hereby further declared and enacted that nothing in this present act contained shall extend or be construed to extend to accelerate or anticipate the time of payment of any rent or rents annuity or annuities or some or sums of money whatsoever.

Jake:
[30:37] Or some are sums of money whatsoever which shall become payable by virtue or in consequence of any custom usage, lease, deed, writing bond note contract or other agreement whatsoever. Now subsisting or which shall be made, signed, sealed or entered into at any time before the said 14th day of September, or which shall become payable by virtue of an act or Acts of Parliament now in force or which shall be made before the said 14th day of September or the time of doing any matter or thing directed or required by any such act or acts of parliament to be done in relation thereto or to accelerate the payment of or increase the interest of any such sum of money which shall become payable as aforesaid, or to accelerate the time of the delivery of any goods, chattels, wares, merchandise or other things whatsoever, or the time of the commencement, expiration or determination of any lease or demise of any lands tenements or hereditament or of any other contract or agreement whatsoever, or of the accepting surrendering or delivering up or the possession of any such lands tenements or heres or the commencement expiration or determination of any annuity or rent or of any grant for any term of years of what nature or kind, soever by virtue or in consequence of any such deed writing contract or agreement.

Jake:
[32:05] Or the time of attaining the age of one in 20 years or any other age requisite by any law, customer usage, deed will or writing whatsoever for the doing of any act or for any other purpose whatsoever by any person or persons now born or who shall be born before the said 14th day of September.

Jake:
[32:27] Or the time of the expiration or determination of any apprenticeship or other service by virtue of any indenture or of any articles under seal or by reason of any simple contract or hiring whatsoever. But that all and every such rent and rents annuity and annuities, sum and sums of money and the entrance thereof shall remain and continue to be due and payable and the delivery of such goods and chattels, wares and merchandise shall be made, and the said leases and demises of all such lands, tenements and heres and the said contracts and agreements shall be deemed to commence expire and determine and the said lands, tenements and hereditament shall be accepted surrendered and delivered up. And the said rents and annuities and grants for any term of years shall commence, cease and determine at and upon the same respective natural days and times as the same should and ought to have been payable or made or would have happened in case this act had not been made, and that no further or other sum shall be paid or payable for the interest of any sum of money whatsoever than such interest shall amount unto for the true number of natural days for which the principal sum bearing such interests shall continue due and unpaid.

Jake:
[33:46] And that no person or persons whatsoever shall be deemed or taken to have attained the said age of one in 20 years or any other age as aforesaid or to have completed the time of any such service as aforesaid until the full number of years and days shall be elapsed on which such person or persons respectively would have attained such age or would have completed the time of such service as aforesaid. In case this act had not been made anything here and before contained to the contrary thereof, in any wise, notwithstanding.

Jake:
[34:21] So if you’re a tenant, you still have to pay a full month’s rent for a 19 day, September. If you’re a borrower, you still owe a full month’s interest. And if you’re indentured until your 21st birthday, you still have to serve the extra 11 days. Even if your birthday changes, your contract lease loan or indenture would still fall on the natural date, move forward 11 days while any new agreements would be made using the new nominal date. That’s a lot of fancy words to say that no matter what happens with the calendar, any financial benefit will only go to the haves and never to the have nots because

Calendar Riots: Myth or Reality?

Jake:
[35:05] the benefit of the new law tended to trickle up. I’ve always heard that there were calendar riots in London in 1752 with a mob marching in the streets chanting, give us back our 11 days. With that in mind. It was interesting to read a similar account about Boston and Seth Anne Howard’s Brief History of calendars and date keeping published in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences in 2010.

Jake:
[35:31] That September became the shortest month in history losing 11 days in a month might not sound so important. However, seeing a good opportunity, landlords charged full rent for the missing 11 days. Legend has it that mobs in Boston rioted saying give us back our 11 days.

Jake:
[35:52] Knowing that Bostonians have never needed much of an excuse to start a riot. I went in search of the Boston calendar rioters and I found nothing. Doctor Howard is a distinguished astrophysicist, but in this case, not much of a historian, everything I can find about the calendar riots says that they were a myth based on a misunderstanding of the sources. The whole thing seems to trace back to a painting by William Hogarth from 1753 showing a hypothetical election day riot. And one of the banners in the picture says, give us our 11 days. But that was intended as a satirical example of what someone could have been upset about. In reality, there weren’t riots on either side of the Atlantic with Gary Smith’s 2016 blog post for the Mass Law Library, noting, the change went off without a hitch because popular sources such as the Boston gazette and Benjamin Franklin’s poor, Richard’s almanac included explanations on how to calculate the changes in the calendar.

The Press and the Calendar Adjustments

Jake:
[36:58] While the new year had already started in January for the first time in 1752. We’ve seen that even almanac makers didn’t immediately understand the rest of the changes that were coming.

Jake:
[37:10] Malcolm Freiburg’s going. Gregorian describes how newspapers prepared the reading public for the change as the details of the calendar bill started to filter into Boston months before the official copy was received. And yet more months before 11 days in September were set to disappear by January 1st 1752. The calendar act was in partial operation. How would the colonial press handle September when 11 days will be dropped? And the act be in full operation? Some newspapers did comment on the omission. Others ignored it. Among the former were the Boston Evening Post which on August 31st alerted its readers that next Thursday which would have been the third of September would instead be the 14th, and from Thenceforward, the days are to be reckoned in numerical order. As before the Boston weekly newsletter noted that its Thursday September 14th issue was new style according to the late Act of Parliament. While the Pennsylvania gazette alerted readers that on the same day begins the new style for the Boston Post boy. Its Monday September 18th number was new style. 1752.

Jake:
[38:29] Recall that I started wondering about the calendar change after seeing John Adams melancholy reflections on the date that would have been his 37th birthday under the old style calendar. As we’ve heard the calendar act stated that the new nominal date should be used to calculate your age, not the old natural date. Adams was far from the only New Englander with a diary to hold on to a fondness for their original natural birthday. Ebenezer Parkman, the first Minister of Westboro Mass recorded the shift of the new system in his diary. But at first only as it relates to the oncoming harvest, 1752 September 14th Thursday, Billy has been about the stocks which he having cut he’s gathering and piking. As he is able by reason of the late frosts, the bushes are so brown that the years advanced into the fall even more than in proportion of the alteration of the date rain in the evening. Then in an entry two days later, he got more personal reflecting on his natural birthday. It was no longer his legal birthday.

Jake:
[39:43] 1752 September 16th Saturday, this being the 51st day in old style. I would consider it as being my birthday and bless God who has so wonderfully preserved me and graciously born with me through such a long space as 49 years.

Personal Reflections on Birthdays

Jake:
[40:03] Like John Adams George Washington remembered his natural birthday under the old style calendar, but he treated the new nominal date as more official.

Jake:
[40:14] He was born on February 11th, but learned to celebrate on the 22nd, which we know as our original President’s Day in true Franklin fashion. Old Ben Franklin tried to have it both ways. Writing to his daughter, Deborah’s latest 1773 I feel still some regard for the sixth of January as my old nominal birthday. Though the change of style has carried the real day forward to the 17th when I shall be. If I live till then 67 years of age like Ben Franklin, I also try to have it both ways when it comes to the podcast. I found that it’s easiest for me and I think least confusing for you, the listener if I use the dates that were in place when an event took place. So in the episode a few months ago about Cotton Mather witnessing the first aurora borealis in a generation in 1719, I used the old calendar style that was in place in 1719. But when talking about the devastating cape an earthquake of 1755. A few weeks ago, I used the new style calendar that would have been in place for only a few years at that time.

Conclusion and Resources

Jake:
[41:24] That way, I don’t have to convert dates in my head and you don’t have to keep two dates straight. When you listen, we just discussed the dates as the people involved would have understood them to learn more about the 1752 calendar change and Boston’s lost 11 days. Check out this week’s show notes at hubor.com/three 09.

Jake:
[41:48] I’ll start by linking to the complete text of the 1750 Calendar Act and the version that was published as part of the Laws of the province of Massachusetts Bay.

Jake:
[41:58] I’ll also have links to Fowls almanac of almanacs and Poor Nathaniel ames’ erroneous 1752 almanac, including Professor John Winthrop’s copy that he manually corrected for the new calendar. Rounding out our primary sources will be Ebenezer Parkman’s diary and the letter from Ben Franklin and entry and John Adams diary about the changes to their birthdays.

Jake:
[42:22] A link to the blog posts I cited from JL Bell and Gary Smith, as well as journal articles from Charles Nichols, Set, Ann Howard, Mark Smith and Malcolm Freiburg. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email podcast at hubor.com. We’re hub history on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. And I’ve actually been posting on Twitter lately. If you’re on Mastodon, you can find me as at Hubor at better dot Boston or just go to hubor.com and click on the contact us link, while you’re on the site, hit the subscribe link and be sure that you never miss an episode. If you subscribe on Apple podcasts, please consider writing us a brief review. If you do drop me a line and I’ll send you a Hub history sticker with our new logo. That’s a token of appreciation.

Jake:
[43:15] That’s all for now. Stay safe out there listeners.