The contents are as follows.

(i) Miscellaneous documents, 1539-1838, relating to the burgh of Montrose and the surrounding country. They include papers relating to the Priory (folios 5-6, 11) and the town council (passim), the death-roll of the Plague, 1648 (folio 18), and fragments of the treasurers' accounts, 1676-1704 (folios 37-53); from folio 54 onwards are a number of legal papers, some fragmentary, mainly concerning lands in Angus.

(ii) Miscellaneous documents, purchased with Ch.5770-5779, including a leaf from a Breviary (folio 79); fragments of the scaffold speech of Donald Cargill (folio 87); and other fragments.

(iii) Miscellaneous documents, 1647, 1678-1685, of Covenanting interest, from the collection of J B Dalzell. They mainly relate to proceedings taken against Covenanters in Lanarkshire in 1679 (folio 96);

(iv) Miscellaneous documents, 1629-1830, also from the collection of J B Dalzell, including letters of Colonel Sir John Gibson concerning the Coldstream Guards, 1691 (folio 155); and the muster roll of a company of the Royal Edinburgh Volunteers, circa 1813 (folio 163).