Dates are given in the order of month, day and year.
The Province of Pennsylvania, on the 7th day of the 10th month 1682 passed an act that the beginning day of the week is Sunday and the beginning month is March. This was followed 28 years later by an act wherein the names of the months of the year are called First, Second, Third, Fourth and so on, instead of March, April, May, June, etc.
In 1751, the English Parliment decreed that the year should begin upon the first day of January, so March thereafter was the third instead of the first month.
In many instances early dates that fall between January and March 25th, two dates are given ie.1723/24. The reason: the ecclesiastical year began on the twenty-fifth day of March , the historical year began on the first day of January, and it is to be understood that it is 1723 by the former and 1724 by the latter.
Source: History and Genealogy of the Harlan Family by Alpheus H. Harlan
Gateway Press, Inc. 1987 ...... Original printing 1914