What year is this please?

[Redroger]

Whilst I agree it may well be 1718/19 in the old form of date. I wonder? When BMDs are entered into parish records, they are simply shown with the date e.g. 31 December 1718 followed by 1st Jan 1718, and the year is changed in March. So why should there be a different format used on a gravestone?

[viking-man]

There's food for thought

[Redroger]

For some strange reason I had assumed this was engraved on a memorial stone. Now I read the posts it is no such thing, unless there has been a post deleted. Assuming this is a parish register, then I make the following comments:

1) At the end of 1715 (24.3.1716 by our reckoning) the keeper opf the record wrote the date of the next year, 1716; there  were  no births, marriages or deaths recorded in the parish during 1717 or 1718, or another book was used, then he prematurely as it happened and badly attempted to alter the 6 into a 9.
2) Is it possibnle to see what is written immediately above the date 1716 or 1719 please? This might confirm or otherwise. 

[Redroger]

Finbar, In this era there was no standardised spelling, so to spell the as thee was as correct as spelling it in the modern way. Spelling and language does continue to evolve, and many spellings and usages become obsolete. I remember at school spelling the word "wagon" with one g, and being clipped around the ear, and told it has 2 g's boy, you are not reading a wild west comic now!

[Pastmagic]

This is a negative image - may help to make it clearer...

[Redroger]

It does indeed. Looks as though with the modern calendar already adopted in other countries some people were backing things both ways regarding the dates.

[pb3]

Here Lieth the Body of
Nicholas Andrew Who
Died March the 18th.(?) 1736/7
Aged 64. Also Ann his
Wife departed this
life Sepr 7th.(?) 1758. Aged74.
[There is an entry in the Registers for NICHOL ANDREW whose date of death is given there as March the 8th. The way in which the year of his death is recorded on this headstone appears to reflect confusion related to the replacement of the Justinian calendar by the Gregorian calendar.]

       This monumental inscription is taken from one of our local (north west Durham) churchyards and is transcribed - as nearly as I could - as shown on the headstone. The Gregorian calendar was in use quite early on in Europe but wasn't accepted in England until the latter part of the eighteenth century.

       It usually caused confusion at the time in both Church records and monumental inscriptions during January, February and March since these three months comprised the final quarter of the year under the old calendar and the first quarter under the Gregorian calendar. We still have a hang-over of the old calendar in the present day as shown in the financial (tax) year which ends at the end of March.

       If you Google 'Gregorian Calendar' there is some very detailed information on the internet as to how it came about and how to allocate the 'correct' year to these dates.
       
       In support of Finbar the Latin word 'sic' means 'thus' as in 'Sic transit gloria mundi' and it is standard practice to use it to indicate a possible error, or spelling variant, in the original record rather than an error made by the transcriber.

         PatB.
   

[Vasquez109]

Very informative! One question though, is (sic) used immediately before the text in question?

David.

[pb3]

David

         I've only ever seen it used after the problematic word just as Finbar used it. When I'm transcribing records I usually put it in square brackets - [sic] - since registers and headstones generally employ () or {} when they are using brackets.

          PatB.