Daily Ancestorcivil year
The civil year (or legal year) in England and its colonies before 1752 ran from March 25 to the following March 24, not from January 1.
Before 1752 the official year in England, Wales, Ireland and the colonies began on Lady Day, March 25. This civil or legal year is what clerks used in laws, deeds and court records, while many people privately counted January 1 as New Year.
So a deed dated February 10, 1740 was written in what we would call February 1741. Scotland had already moved its New Year to January 1 in 1600, so Scottish dates of the same period do not need this adjustment.
As seen in a recordDate clause of a colonial deed
This deed dated the tenth of February, 1740
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "civil year." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/dates-calendar/civil-year. Last checked 2026-10-01.