A New New Year - January 2012 Document of the Month
In this parish register for the 1700s, a strange flower-like symbol keeps appearing. What does it mean?
Parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials are key records for family historians. Shown here is a parish register for Sturminster Newton (ref: PE/SN/RE/1/3).
In this register, the vicar has repeatedly drawn a distinct flower-like symbol. On first glance these appear to be placed somewhat a random, but a closer inspection reveals that they start to appear every March from 1752 onwards.
The meaning of the symbol then becomes more apparent. Up until 1752 England was still using the Julian calendar. Under this calendar New Year's Day was 25 March.
Pope Gregory introduced a new calendar in 1582, but because England had broken away from the Catholic church, this change wasn't implemented in England until two centuries later.
The vicar, perhaps being some of a traditionalist, seems to have wanted to continue to acknowledge the 'old' New Year, at least in an unofficial way, so continued to mark each March with this symbol.
The legacy of the Julian calendar is still with us today - the beginning of the financial year in April is a hang-over from the older calendar.
When referring to events that took place between January and March before 1752, these dates are sometimes cited in sources as (for example) 1 January 1650/1. This indicates that the date falls within what was considered at the time to be the year 1650, but what we would now call 1651.
Also note the variant spelling here - the vicar titles the list of burials "Buralls".
