Actually, while the 1795 storyline supposedly took place in just 1795, You had Victoria Winters arriving in the fall of 1795 and staying for several months, which would have made it the winter of 1796. The goof I like the best connect to the dating of the 1795 storyline happens after Vicki returns and searches for Peter Bradford's tombstone. That stone says he died in April of 1795, yet that would have been months before Vicki's arrival.
The writers later did take it to 1796 when we had the mini flashback, when Barnabas went back to save Vicki from the gallows, but apparently they just couldn't keep their years straight and 1796 became 1797 and had the show last 20 years, it would have 1817.
Richard Holt