This archive constitutes the bulk of the surviving family and estate papers of the Maxwells of Monreith. It gives a clear picture of Maxwell family life, and the running of the Monreith estate from the early 18th century to 1920, with some later estate material. Some of the papers go back to the early 17th century, but the formal estate books begin in 1779, and from then on increase steadily in number and comprehensiveness until from 1893 to 1920 there is scarcely a detail of estate administration unrecorded. Unusual in the collection are two cattle drove accounts, 1731-2, (no.75), and the detailed surveys of the roads in the Machers, 1804, (no.106), which show how they were reconstructed and realigned much as they are to-day.

The family correspondence is largely of local and family importance, though the letters of Jane Maxwell, Duchess of Gordon (no.2), and the correspondence of and about the 5th Baronet (nos.6, 7), who lost an arm at Corunna, are of more general interest.

Generally throughout the archive are papers relating to other families, notably the Earls of Galloway and Stair (nos.7,14,15), the Hays of Airieolland and the Blairs of Adamton (no.65), and the families connected with the Maxwells by marriage, such as Hathorn of Castlewigg, Fordyce of Ayton, Maitland of Freugh, DuFré of Wilton Park, Murray of Polmaise, Shaw Stewart of Greenock, and MacDowall of Carthland.