News-sheet — September 2010

I. Latest news

Gregorian Calendaring

Following on from last months work on alternative calendaring it is interesting to note that it is 260 years since the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 which was put before parliament by Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th earl of Chesterfield.

. . . I had brought a bill into the House of Lords, for correcting and reforming our present calendar, which is the Julian, and for adopting the Gregorian. . . .

— Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th earl of Chesterfield to Philip Stanhope (Monday, 29 March 1751)
(EE letter id: stanphOU0010223a1c)

The act required the omission of the eleven days following the 2nd September 1752:

. . . and that the natural day next immediately following the said second day of September shall be called, reckoned, and accounted to be the fourteenth day of September, omitting for that time only the eleven intermediate nominal days of the common calendar; . . .

— Calendar (New Style) Act 1750
The UK Statute Law Database

Map of harbours in Cuba and Jamaica

We have added sheet 12 from A Map of the British Empire in America with the French and Spanish Settlements adjacent thereto, courtesy of David Rumsey/Cartography Associates. This particular sheet has five inset maps including "The Havana", the "Bay of St. Iago in Cuba", "Kingston harbour in Jamaica", "A plan of the harbour of Port Antonio in Jamaica" and "Fort Royal in Martinica"

III. New Documents

The Correspondence of Robert Boyle, volume 5: 1678–1683

EE is pleased to announce inclusion of the fifth volume of The Correspondence of Robert Boyle, ed. Michael Hunter et al. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2001). The fifth of a six volume edition, this volume adds 373 new letters and documents and 89 new biographical notes to the collection. Here are a few sample lives:

IV. New biographies

The fifth volume of The Correspondence of Robert Boyle provides many new and interesting people. Here are a few sample lives:

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