The regnal years of English and British monarchs are the official regnal years of the monarchs of the Kingdom of England from 1066 to May 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain from May 1707 to January 1801, and the United Kingdom since January 1801. The regnal calendar ("nth year of the reign of King X", abbreviated to "n X", etc.) continues to be utilised in many official British government and legal documents of historical interest, notably parliamentary statutes prior to 1963, and prior to 1867 in the case law collected in the year books, nominative reporters, and digests, and in the reports republished in the English Reports and Revised Reports.
For centuries, English official public documents have been dated according to the regnal years of the ruling monarch. Traditionally, parliamentary statutes are referenced by regnal year, e.g. the Occasional Conformity Act 1711 is officially referenced as "10Ann. c.6" (read as "the sixth chapter of the statute of the parliamentary session that sat in the 10th year of the reign of Queen Anne").
Regnal years are calculated from the official date (year, month and day) of a monarch's accession. For example, King George III acceded on 25 October 1760. That marks the beginning of his first regnal year. His second regnal year starts on 25 October 1761, his third regnal year on 25 October 1762, and so on. When a monarch dies, abdicates or is deposed, the regnal year comes to an end (whether the full year has run its course or not). A new regnal year begins from a new date, with a new monarch.
As different monarchs begin their reigns at different times, the exact month and day when a regnal year begins varies across reigns. For example, Elizabeth I's regnal year starts on 17 November, James I's on 24 March, Charles I's on 27 March, and so on.
The table below gives the dates of the regnal years for Kings of England (and subsequently Great Britain), from 1066 to the present day.[1] These are official de jure dates, and may or may not coincide with whether a particular king had de facto power or not at that time. For example, as the Commonwealth era was suppressed in the official record, the regnal years of Charles II are measured from 30 January 1649 (the day his father Charles I was executed); as a result, when Charles II actually became king, on 29 May 1660, he was already in his 12th regnal year. (For the de facto tabulation of English rulers, see any conventional list of English monarchs.)
Regnal years on the table below are recorded only for Kings of England (and subsequently Great Britain, and later the United Kingdom). These are not regnal years of Kings of Scotland nor Ireland, which have their own regnal dates.
Legal year
The regnal year is distinct from the official "legal year" – that is, the calendar used for legal, civic and ecclesiastical purposes. The legal year also did not always coincide with the start date for the historical year. Until the 13th century, the English legal year began at Christmas (25 December). From the 13th century until 1752, the legal year began on 25 March (Lady Day).[2] It is only since 1752 that the legal year was re-set to coincide with the start of the historical calendar year (1 January) (see Calendar (New Style) Act 1750).[3]
These date differences can also be confusing when sorting dates in old documents before 1753. For example, the reign of Charles I came to an end with his execution on 30 January 1649, but contemporary records such as the House of Commons Journals record this as 30 January 1648.[4] To account for this complication, it is customary for historians referring to official or legal events between 1 January and 25 March to write the year down in "double-barreled" format (e.g. "30 January 1648–49", the former being the legal year, the latter the historical year).[5]
The regnal years listed below are given in normal historical date (not legal year). So a parliamentary statute that was passed on, say, 10 February 1585 (in normal calendar date) would be dated in the official record as 10 February 1584 (the legal year), and simultaneously said to have been passed in the 27th year of Elizabeth I (the regnal year that started on 17 November 1584).[3]
The 1750 Act reforming the legal year also officially introduced to England the Gregorian calendar on Thursday 14 September 1752. Up until then, England had been using the Julian calendar, which by that time was eleven days behind the calendar of most countries on the European Continent. So events before 1752 in English records often differ from European records, and it is sometimes necessary to refer to both sets of dates using "Old Style" (Julian) and "New Style" (Gregorian) notation, e.g. William of Orange's armada landed in England on 5 November 1688 (OS) or 15 November 1688 (NS) (see Old Style and New Style dates). The dates in the table below follow the English calendar (OS until 1752, NS thereafter).
Regnal calendar table
To calculate the regnal year from a particular date, one subtracts the first regnal year from the calendar year in question. The year is not adjusted if the month and day falls before the regnal date, and if it falls on or after the regnal date, add one. Finally – for the regnal year of William III after Mary's death (that is, from 28 December 1694 onwards) – one also adds 6.
Example 1: 4 July 1776. This falls in the reign of George III, whose first regnal year is 1760; so 1776 – 1760 = 16th year of his reign (4 July is before 25 October).
Example 2: 2 May 1662. This is in the reign of Charles II, whose first regnal year is 1649. So 1662 – 1649 = 13, add 1 because 2 May is after 30 January, so the date falls in the 14th regnal year of Charles II.
Example 3: 31 December 1695. This falls in the reign of William III alone (after Mary's death), whose "first" regnal year is 1694; so 1695 – 1694 = 1, add 1 because 31 December is after 28 December, and also add 6 because the date is after Mary's death (on 27 December), so the date falls in the "8th" year of his reign.
↑ Empress Matilda, who claimed the English throne, and actually ruled substantial parts of England between 1141 and 1148, is excluded from the official record. Stephen's years are unbroken.
↑ The coronation date of King Richard I of England (3 September 1189) is the official limit of legal memory in English law. This date was first established in the Statute of Westminster 1275 (3 Edward I c.39), and subsequently generalized. Except in a few limited cases, lawsuits cannot rely on documents, deeds, etc. dated from before 1189, nor refer to activities occurring before 1189. This effectively nullified all attempts to recover prior Anglo-Saxon property and titles seized during the Norman conquest of 1066. It is also why Anglo-Saxon kings of England have no regnal years and no presence on this list, and anything from that era is just regarded as "time immemorial" in English law.
↑ Edward I's regnal years are unusual for starting and ending on the same day (20 November), rather than ending one day, and starting the next.
↑ Edward III is given two different regnal years, one for England, and another for France (the only claimant for whom this is done). English years are unbroken between 1327 and 1377. French years are counted from the start date of 25 January 1340 (beginning of Year 1 France and Year 14 England), and interrupted on 8 May 1360 (end of Year 21 France); the French numbering resumes on 11 June 1369 as beginning of French Year 30, and follows the English start/end dates (25/24 January) thereafter until 21 June 1377, the end of English year 51 and French year 38.
↑ From Richard II onwards, every new king's regnal year begins exactly on the day on or after the end of the previous king's reign (previous transitions often had a gap of several days, sometimes weeks). Henceforth, in official terms, "England always has a king", i.e. there will not be a day in subsequent English history without a reigning monarch (with the exception of the Glorious Revolution of 1688–1689; see below).
↑ Henry VI was deposed by Edward IV on 4 March 1461, officially bringing his reign and last regnal year to a close. However, Henry VI briefly recovered the throne in 1470–1471, so he has an extra regnal year, dated from 9 October 1470 to c. April 1471, and referred to as the 49th year ("Anno ab inchoatione regni nostri") or 1st year of "readeption" ("Readeptionis nostrae regiae potestatis"). Henry VI's readeption year does not mar the continuity of Edward IV's regnal years – Edward IV's 10th Year is counted unbroken as beginning from 4 March 1470 and ending 3 March 1471, his 11th year beginning 4 March 1471, etc.
↑ Lady Jane Grey, the "Nine Days Queen", who was Queen Jane from 6 July 1553 to 17 July 1553, is not present in the official record. Mary I's reign officially begins on 6 July 1553.
1 2 Mary I married the Habsburg prince Philip (future Philip II of Spain) on 25 July 1554, who was promptly made co-ruler of England. Their joint reign is officially referred to as "Philip and Mary", but the numbering of their regnal years is not reset to 1 for both, but rather retained separately for each. So the first year of "Philip and Mary", which begins on 25 July 1554, is officially referred to as "1 & 2" (1st year of Philip, 2nd year of Mary). There is the complication, of course, that Mary's previous regnal year began on 6 July, a few weeks before Philip's start date of 25 July. So the numbers between those two days are adjusted. Taken continuously, the regnal year numbers are:
1 Mary: 6 July 1553 – 5 Jul 1554
2 Mary: 6 Jul 1554 – 24 Jul 1554
1 & 2 Philip and Mary: 25 Jul 1554 – 5 Jul 1555
1 & 3 Philip and Mary: 6 Jul 1555 – 24 Jul 1555
2 & 3 Philip and Mary; 25 Jul 1555 – 5 Jul 1556
2 & 4 Philip and Mary: 6 Jul 1556 – 24 Jul 1556
3 & 4 Philip and Mary; 25 Jul 1556 – 5 Jul 1557
3 & 5 Philip and Mary: 6 Jul 1557 – 24 Jul 1557
4 & 5 Philip and Mary; 25 Jul 1557 – 5 Jul 1558
4 & 6 Philip and Mary: 6 Jul 1558 – 24 Jul 1558
5 & 6 Philip and Mary: 25 Jul 1558 – 17 November 1558
↑ The Commonwealth era (1649–1660) is obliterated from the official record. The beginning regnal date of Charles II is 30 January 1649, the day his father was executed. However, Charles II would only become de facto king on 29 May 1660, officially regarded as the 12th year of his reign. During the Commonwealth era, public documents did not have any regnal or republican calendar, just the conventional calendar date, the "Year of Our Lord", with normal month and day.
↑ The English official record regards James II as having abdicated on 11 December 1688, the day he slipped out of London (he was captured the next day in Rochester). His formal deposition did not take instrument until 12 February 1689, by a declaration of the convention of old parliamentarians at Westminster (see "Glorious Revolution"), which backdated the "abdication" to 11 December. That declaration was entered into statute law later that year, in December 1689 (1 Will & Mar., 2nd Sess., c.2).
↑ This is the exception to "England always has a King" rule, prevailing since the reign of Richard II. With James II officially deposed on 11 December 1688, and William & Mary officially beginning 13 February 1689, there is a space of nearly two months in which England, officially speaking, is without a monarch.
1 2 In regnal numbering, the relationship between "William and Mary" and "William III" is a little tricky. In the Philip and Mary I case, back in the 1550s, each monarch was given their own regnal date and stuck with it. William III and Mary II ascended as monarchs on the same date (13 February 1689), and so it was unnecessary to state it as "1 & 1 William and Mary", but simply "1 William and Mary". But Mary's death (on 27 December 1694, in the 6th year of W & M) complicated numbering. If the 1550s model had been used, then William III should have continued on his 6th year until 13 February 1695, when the new regnal year, the 7th year of William III, should have begun. However, in this instance, the regnal start day (but not the year) was reset after Mary's death, so William III's 7th year began prematurely on 28 December 1694.
↑ George III was declared incapacitated on 5 February 1811, in the course of his 51st regnal year. However, the regnal dating was unaffected by the Regency, so regnal years were still measured by George III's regnal date of 25 October, until his death in 1820.
↑ George IV's period as prince regent (1811–1820) for his ailing father, George III, is not counted in his regnal numbering.
Legal citation
Names
On many legal documents, including statute rolls and in statute compilations up until the mid-19th century, the full name of the regnal year is usually written out in Latin, e.g. "Anno Regni Georgii II vicesimo nono" for "29 George II" (i.e. 1756).
Legal citation usually uses abbreviations of royal names for simplicity. In legal citation, the first monarch of a regnal name is not followed by an ordinal number, but all subsequent monarchs of that name are. Thus, the 25th year of ElizabethI is simply 25Eliz., but the 25th year of ElizabethII is 25Eliz.2.
Between 13th and 15th Centuries, it was common for English official and legal documents (acts, writs, deeds, etc.) to be dated by reference to the weekday relative to a nearby religious feast date and the regnal year (e.g. "Monday after feast of St. Luke Evangelist, 3 Henry V" for 21 October 1415).
Translating a feast citation to a historical calendar date involves looking up the liturgical calendar for the regnal year in question. The standard reference for date conversion is C.R. Cheyney's Handbook of Dates.[9]
England had four "quarter days" on which certain transactions, notably the payment of rents, were conducted every year:
(1) Lady Day (feast of the Annunciation) (25 March)
(2) Midsummer Day (feast of St. John the Baptist) (24 June)
(3) Michaelmas Day (feast of St. Michael and all Angels) (29 September)
(4) Christmas Day (feast of Nativity), (25 December)
It is not uncommon to find English documents or court judgments relating that a certain action goes into effect or has to be undertaken by one of these quarter days.
Term citation
Many old legal documents (especially court documents) do not contain any specific day, but simply record the "law term" and regnal year (e.g. "Michaelmas term, 5 George II", meaning sometime in Oct-Nov, 1732).
Since time immemorial, there was a division between "holy days" (dies feriales), dedicated to God alone, where no official or juridical business could be conducted, and "law days" (dies juridicos) when cases could be judged, writs issued, lawsuits filed, etc.
Traditionally (allegedly since the days of Edward the Confessor), the English law days were grouped and divided into four "law terms", that is periods when the higher English law courts would be open (all other days were deemed "holy days" or reserved for agriculture). Each law term lasted about three weeks, and was named after the major religious feast which immediately preceded it. So the four law terms of England were referred to as "Michaelmas term" (the first, Oct-Nov), "Hilary term" (Jan-Feb), "Easter term" (Apr-May) and "Trinity term" (Jun-Jul).
The law terms were primarily established for the Court of Common Pleas, which was separated from the king's court in 1190s and sat in Westminster since 1234. The terms were also adopted by the King's Bench once it also became sedentary. It was more loosely followed by the Exchequer of Pleas. The Court of Chancery, by contrast, was "always open". In practice, the law terms were a little flexible and had varied lengths, depending on the court or volume of business, and sometimes stretched well past the prescribed dates, with breaks if a major religious festival landed within the law term. The Law Terms Act 1830 (11 Geo IV & 1 Will IV c.70) fixed exact calendar dates for the law terms (with only slight adjustments if they landed on a Sunday).
The law terms were abolished in the 1873 Judicature act (36 & 37 Vict c.66), but the old terms continued to be used as a measure of time for legal awards. By force of tradition, the same term labels are still applied today for sittings of the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, but no longer have the same meaning.[10]
"Hilary term" (Jan-Feb): the Hilary term originally ran from the feast of St. Hilary (13 January) to Septuagesima (Ninth Sunday before Easter, usually early February, thereby breaking up before Lent), but the full Hilary law term for Common Pleas ran specifically from the octave of St. Hilary (23 January) to 12 February (if it landed on Sunday, then the next day). In the 1830 act (1 Will IV c.70), the Hilary law term was fixed from 11 January to 30 January.[11] Today the Hilary sitting runs from 11 January to the Wednesday before Easter Sunday (March/April).
"Easter term" (Apr-May): traditionally ran from octave of Easter (week after Easter) to Ascension Day (usually May). The 1830 act fixed it to begin on 15 April and end 8 May (with adjustments if the dates landed too close to Easter Sunday).[12] Today, the Easter sitting runs from second Tuesday after Easter to Friday before Whitsunday (usually late May).
"Trinity term" (Jun-Jul): ran from octave of Whitsunday (usually early Jun) to mid-July (break for harvest). Early on, it began in the octave of Trinity Sunday, but full term only began from the first Wednesday after Corpus Christi day (thus a week-and-half after Trinity Sunday). A 1540 act (32 Henry VIII c.21) brought that up by a week, and made it officially begin the first Monday after Trinity Sunday and the full term from Friday after Corpus Christi (thus the first Friday after Trinity).[13] Today, the Trinity sitting runs from second Tuesday after Whitsunday to July 31.
"Michaelmas term" (Oct-Dec): originally the full Michaelmas term ran from the fourth day of the octave of the feast of St. Michael (9 October) to 28 November (before Advent Sunday). An act of 1641 (16 Charles I c.6) pushed the begin date forward to 23 October (fourth day of three weeks of St. Michael). A 1752 act (22 Geo. II c.48) pushed it further forward, so the Michaelmas law term began on the Morrow of All Souls' Day(3 November) and the full term on fourth day of Morrow (6 November). The 1830 act fixed the term as beginning on 2 November and ending on 25 November.[14] Today, the Michaelmas sitting runs from 1 October to 21 December.
As historically the annual accounts of the Exchequer started precisely at Michaelmas (29 September), the Michaelmas law term in is usually considered the first law term of the year.
These law terms apply only to England (Scotland has different law terms entirely).
Some old English universities (e.g. Oxford) use the same labels for their academic terms, but their dates should not be confused with law term dates.
Exchequer citation
Regnal years were also used for the records at the Exchequer since the earliest days (before 1130). However, the royal fiscal accounts were calculated for one year, always starting on the Morrow of Michaelmas Day (day after feast of St. Michael) (30 September) and ending on Michaelmas Day (29 September). The Pipe Rolls and memoranda of the Exchequer were assigned the label of the regnal year on which the final day fell.[15] This meant that the royal names and numbers assigned to exchequer years dated at the end of the pipe roll, often contradict the regnal years used by the Chancery, e.g. Edward I's 35th regnal year ended with his death on 2 July 1307, but the exchequer year which began on 30 Sep 1306 continues until 29 Sep 1307, which lands in the first regnal year of his successor Edward II. Thus the entire exchequer year (1306–07) is labelled "1 Edward II". Receipts from, say, December 1307, are added to "2 Edward II" in exchequer year, but are "1 Edward II" in regnal year.
The Parliament of England has recorded statutes from 1235 to 1707, many of which are still in force in English law jurisdiction (England and Wales). A parliamentary statute is permanent and remains in force until explicitly repealed (although many statutes were passed with in-built expiration dates).
Th Parliament of England was converted into the Parliament of Great Britain in 1707 (with the union of Scotland) and the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1801 (with the union with Ireland). While politically unified, they were not legally unified. Continued legal separation for Scotland was guaranteed in Article 19 of the 1707 Treaty of Union, and a similar guarantee was made for Ireland in the Act of Union 1800.[16] As a result, the United Kingdom retains three distinct and separate legal systems (English law, Scots law and Northern Ireland law) and three separate legal jurisdictions (England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland). Laws passed by the UK parliament in Westminster have to note which of the three legal jurisdictions (or all) they apply to. The regnal year method of legal citation covered in this article pertains strictly to English law jurisdiction, and does not necessarily apply to other jurisdictions.
Statute laws are cited not by parliament, but rather by parliamentary session. A parliament usually has multiple sessions. An "adjournment" interrupts a session, a "prorogation" ends a session, and a "dissolution" ends a parliament. A session is labeled by the regnal year in which that session sat up until its prorogation.
In English tradition, a parliamentary session passes only one public act or "statute", albeit an act with various "chapters". English legal statutes are cited by parliamentary session labeled by the regnal year in which that session sat. So the citation "15 Charles II c. 4" means "the fourth chapter of the statute passed by the parliamentary session that sat in the 15th year of the reign of Charles II".
If a single parliamentary session overlaps the regnal year start date, it is given a double-label, e.g. Charles II's regnal year begins January 30, so the parliamentary session that ran from October 1670 to April 1671 is labeled "22 & 23 Charles II" (the session that sat from the 22nd to the 23rd year of Charles II's reign).
If there are two sessions within the same regnal year, they are differentiated by a "statute" or "session" suffix (e.g. 13 Charles II St. 1 is a different session than 13 Charles II St. 2). Finally, some sessions were prorogued without passing an act, and thus have no legal statute label at all.
In the event of two sessions within the same regnal year, the chapter numbering would reset and the sessions are differentiated by the suffixes: "statute 1" & "statute 2" (abbreviated "stat.1" and "stat.2" or "st.1" and "st.2") or alternatively "session 1" and "session 2" (abbreviated "sess.1" and "sess.2" or "s.1" and "s.2"). It is sometimes alleged that "sess.2" is used if it is a new session of a continuing parliament and "stat.2" if it is the first session of a new parliament. But that does not seem to be consistently true. Whether "sess." or "stat." is applied depends on the compilation used.
For example, Mary I, whose regnal start date is on 6 July 1553, had three parliamentary sessions within her first regnal year - two sessions within her first parliament (Oct-Dec, 1553), and a third session in her second parliament (Apr-May, 1554). The Treason Act 1553 is cited "1 Mar. sess.1 c.1" is it was passed in the first session of her first parliament,[17] while Legitimacy of the Queen, etc. Act 1553 is cited "1Mar. sess.2 c.1" as it was passed in the second session of her first parliament[18] and finally Queen Regent's Prerogative Act 1554 is cited as "1Mar. sess.3 c.1" as it was passed in the first session of her second parliament.[19] All three are within her first regnal year (6 July 1553 to 5 Jul 1554).
The Riot Act is cited as "1Geo. stat.2. c.5", was passed in the first session of the second parliament of the first year of the reign of George I.
The Long Parliament presents an anomaly, since it was convened by the King Charles I of England on 3 November 1640 and went through various incarnations until it was finally dissolved on 16 March 1660. Since its first session of 1640 was never prorogued by royal command, its first session officially never ended, and all its surviving acts are labeled "16 Charles I".
Retrospective dates
Before the modern era, a statute of parliament was usually only given royal assent on the last day of the parliamentary session (just before prorogation). Even if assent for a specific act was actually given earlier, it was not noted in the statute text. So the order of chapters in a statute is usually meaningless, and gives no indication of when during the session it actually passed. Historians trying to affix a conventional calendar date to a specific act have to dig for clues in the Commons Journal, or simply assume all acts were assented at once on the final day. This was changed by the Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793 (33 Geo.3 c.13) which required the clerk of parliament to explicitly record the date of passage and assent. So it is only from 1794 onwards that statutes explicitly include the calendar date of an act.
Peculiarly, before 1794, it was also the case that an act was assumed to go into legal effect not on the final day of the session (the date of royal assent), but rather on the first day of the session in which it was passed. That means that parliamentary acts applied retrospectively to the start of the session, several weeks or months before they were actually passed and assented. To avoid injustices, it was common for parliamentary legislation to explicitly specify in the text the date when a new law, regulation, or tax would begin to apply. But not always. If a commencement date was not specified, the parliamentary act applied retrospectively to the start of the session, and magistrates could prosecute or impose penalties on actions that were perfectly legal at the time. This often provoked indignation and outrage. William Blackstone, in his influential 1765 Commentaries, railed against retrospective laws, insisting laws should apply only to the future.[20] Remembering the English experience, Americans were careful to include a categorical prohibition on ex post facto laws in the US Constitution in 1789. The 1793 Commencement Act finally remedied this, and thereafter laws only applied from the date of assent recorded by the clerk in the statute. This was reinforced in the Interpretation Act 1978.
The pre-1794 custom of retrospective dating may cause confusion in the "short titles" for statutes which happen to have a year in the title. Parliamentary sessions often started in Autumn and continued into Spring. So an act that was passed in, say, the Spring of 1554 might nonetheless be given the year "1553" in its short title - as that is when the session began, and thus when the act came into retrospective force. Thus historians often have to tangle with the awkwardness of citing an "act of 1553" responding to events occurring in 1554. Careful writers will take care to mention the actual year of passage in the historical narrative if there is risk of confusion with the year in the short title. Careless writers might not make notice of it and let readers assume the short title year is the actual year of passage, e.g. the Bubble Act (6 George I c.18) passed in June 1720 is sometimes mistakenly cited in history books as being passed in 1719 (long before the South Sea Bubble began!) simply because its legal short title is the "Royal Exchange and London Assurance Corporation Act 1719" (the session started in November 1719).
Statute compilations
Citation labels are not always consistent, and depends on the statute compilation used.
For historical researchers, the most prominent compilations of statutes are the popular Statutes at Large (ed. Owen Ruffhead, 1762–65)[21] and the similarly-named contemporary rival Statutes at Large (ed. Danby Pickering 1762–66) [22] The labels and numbering in Ruffhead and Pickering compilations are identical, and so interchangeable. But their regnal year titles sometimes differ considerably from the official The Statutes of the Realm (ed. John Raithby, 1810–22, for the Record Commission, covering acts up to 1714).[23] So when citing old statutes before 1714 it is sometimes necessary to check for variances and make note of which compilation is being used.[24]
The fourth major historical compilation entering the fray was the Statutes at Large of England and Great Britain (ed. T.E. Tomlins and John Raithby,1811, covering acts before 1800),[25] which is continued as the Statutes of the United Kingdom and Ireland (acts from 1801 until 1869).[26]
All these statute compilations (except for the Statutes of the Realm) are unofficial, put out by private editors and printers. While well-regarded and treated as authoritative by the legal profession, there was no guarantee they were complete, or that their wording was correct and the law was as stated.
Since Medieval times, actual law in force was as stated on Statute Rolls (until 1483) and thereafter on Parliament Rolls (until 1850). A roll was literally a long continuous scroll of vellum parchment, upon which the acts ("chapters") of a parliamentary session, passed and assented, were written down. The rolls were stored in various scattered locations around Westminster and London, up until the establishment of the Public Records Office in 1838.
In 1796, a select parliamentary committee, under the chairmanship of Charles Abbott, reviewed the private statute compilations, and their report concluded that they were inadequate - some statutes were missing entirely, others had missing clauses, some had been repealed, etc.[27] They recommended the establishment of a Record Commission to oversee the publication of a "authentic and entire record" from the English statute rolls. The official The Statutes of the Realm (1817–22) was the result of this effort. However it only went as far as 1714. Legal professionals still had to rely on the Statutes at Large compilations put out by private publishers until the 1860s.
A Statute Law Commission was established in 1854 under lord chancellor Robert Rolfe, 1st Baron Cranworth to overhaul the compilation of statutes. During this process, they also composed parliamentary bills to formally repeal and clear statutes that are no longer in force, and consolidate some scattered acts into a new comprehensive bills. A Statute Law Committee was appointed in 1868 under the Lord Chancellor Hugh Cairns, 1st Earl Cairns, who took over the publication of the compilation. The committee published a series of volumes known as The Statutes Revised from 1870 to 1885, compiling existing statute law down to 1878, and regarded as official.[28] After a series of additional acts consolidating statutes, a second revised edition was put out in 1888, removing the ones that were repealed. The Statutes Second Revised edition compiles statutes from 1235 down to 1920.[29] The official Statutes Revised collections follow the Statutes of the Realm labels until 1714, and the Statutes at Large labels thereafter.[24]
↑ Although 25 March was already used for dating in Italy and France during the 11th century, Cheyney (2000: p.13) calculates it was introduced to England in the mid-1100s, probably by Cistercian monks who favored its usage (Waverly Abbey was founded in 1128). The year start date of 25 March displaced 25 December in common English usage in the late 12th century, and continued until 1752.
↑ Adoption of 1 January as the start date for the year was one of Gregorian calendar reforms introduced in 1582, and was quickly adopted in most Catholic countries. Protestant Scotland began using it in 1600. Most of the European continent had already transitioned from 25 March to 1 January by the mid-17th century, when there were many English exiles abroad. Use of the double-barreled format (e.g. 1674-75 or 1674/75) begins to occasionally appear in England, both in private and public records, already by the late 17th century. English writers of this era (e.g. Samuel Pepys's diary), tended to stick to the 25 March start date, especially if they were writing only for English audiences. Nonetheless, many English periodicals (newspapers, magazines, reviews, almanacs), which exploded in the early 1700s, used the historical year with 1 January start date and did not even bother with double-barreling (Cheyney, 2000:p.13).
↑ "Bluebook Table 2.43 §Statutes". Bluebook. The Editors of The Columbia Law Review, The Harvard Law Review, The University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and The Yale Law Journal. 13 December 2024. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
↑ C.R. Cheyney (1945) A Handbook of Dates, revised edition C.R. Cheyney and M. Jones (2000) A Handbook of Dates, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks No. 4 (Cambridge University Press)
↑ With the difference that although the 1800 act guaranteed the continuation of established Irish courts, it replaced Irish common law with English common law (unlike in Scotland). Northern Ireland was made a separate legal jurisdiction in the Partition Act of 1921.
↑ William Blackstone (1765) Commentaries on the Laws of England, p.46
↑ Owen Ruffhead, editor, (1762–65), Statutes at Large, from Magna Charta to the Twenty-Fifth Year of George III. Ruffhead died in 1765 before completion, and the collection was continued by Charles Runnington up to 1800.
↑ Danby Pickering, editor, (1762–66) Statutes at Large, from Magna Charta to the End of the Eleventh Parliament of Great Britain, Anno 1761. Cambridge. Pickering died in 1781, but the collection continued to be put out with his name on the title page until 1806, and thereafter without his name until the 1830s.
↑ J. Raithby, editor, (1810-22) Statutes of the Realm, Hathi trust.
1 2 Chronological Table and Index of the Statutes, 2nd. ed. 1873: table of variances between Statutes of Realm and Ruffhead-Pickering Statutes at Large.
↑ T.E. Tomlins & J. Raithby (1811) The Statutes at Large, of England and of Great Britain: from Magna Carta to the union of the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, 20 volumes, for acts up to 1801. This was put out as a side volume after Tomlins had published his 1801-09 volumes of the Statutes of the United Kingdom. Raithby's performance as co-editor led him to be appointed to lead the official Statutes of the Realm compilation in 1819.
↑ T.E. Tomlins et al. (1804) The Statutes of the United Kingdom and Ireland, vols.1-3 (1801-1809) edited by T.E. Tomlins; vols. 4 through 10 (1810-1826) are edited by John Raithby, vols. 11 through 21 (1826-1853) are edited by N. Simons of Lincoln's Inn, vols. 22-23 (1854-1858) have no editors named, vols. 24 through 29 (1858-1869) are edited by George Kettilby Rickards, which ends the edition.
↑ Report of 12 May 1796,Journal of the House of Commons, v.51, p.702
↑ The Statutes: Revised Edition. London: Edward Eyre & William Spottiswoode.
↑ The Statutes: Second Revised Edition (24 vols, 1888-1929). London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.
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