The contents of the manuscript are as follows:

(i) A list of the pre-reformation abbeys and other religious houses of Scotland, each accompanied by the names and dates of the abbots and other heads who had been identified from cartularies in the Advocates Library and in private possession (folio 5).

(ii) Notes on the various houses, derived mainly from Keith, with some from Dugdale and Spottiswoode, arranged in chronological order of the kings in whose reigns they were founded (folio 87). The notes are undated, but several of the leaves are watermarked 1798, and the endpapers are watermarked 1801. There are several small additions in pencil in a 19th-century hand in various parts of the volume.