The contents of the manuscript are as follows:

(i) ‘The Portrait of True Loyalty exposed in the Family of Gordon, without interruption to this present year 1691. With a Relation

of the Castle of Edr. in the year 1689’ (folio 1), which is attributed to David Burnet, a Catholic Priest. The original manuscript, which was in Blairs College, Aberdeen (‘The House of Gordon’, page xxxvi), is at the Scottish Catholic Archives, Columba House, Edinburgh, where it has the pressmark MM 2/2. The work was used by William Gordon for his ‘History of the Family of Gordon’. ‘The Siege of Edinburgh Castle’ (in this manuscript, beginning folio 135) was published by the Bannatyne Club in 1828. For other copies of this work, see Adv.MSS.23.3.24 and 34.6.11.

(ii) Genealogies of various Scottish peers (folios 173-258) taken mainly from printed sources, including ‘History of the Shire of Renfrew’. Each peer is separately indexed. A rough index to these genealogies occurs at the back of the volume (folio 401).

(iii) ‘Double signature of the commission for executing the office of Chamberlane [of Scotland]’, 15 November, 1711 (folio 259).

(iv) ‘Commission for prosecuting Whigish rebells who had affixed a paper on several Church doores declaring warr agt. his Matie, and for murdering two of his souldiers viz. Duncan Stewart and Thomas Kennoway while asleep in yr beds at Swyne Abbey in West Lothian in the night 1684’ (folio 260 verso).

(v) `Genealogie of the St Clairs Erles of Orkney in a Letter by ye Bishop of Orkney to ye King of Norroway. Taken out of an old manuscript of St Clair of Rosline written in Anno 1456. ... Translatit out of Latine into Scots be ... Deine Thomas Guld munk of Newbothill at the requeist ... of Wm St Clare ... 1554` (folio 262). The original manuscript from which the translation was taken is lodged in the Abbotsford Library (see ‘Bannatyne Miscellany’, volume 3, page 63). The Latin original was first published in ‘Account of the Islands of Orkney’, page 121, and from there it was copied by the editor of the ‘Orkneyinga Saga’. It appeared again in ‘History of the Orkney Islands’, with the translation of Thomas Guild included.

(vi) ‘Commission of Chamberlanerie by King George to Marques of Twedale and others. 13 December 1714’ (folio 267 verso).

(vii) `Diploma Wm. Grey son of Wm Grey of Pittendrum burgess of Edr. to be Maister of Grey`, 1641 (folio 269 verso).

(viii) `Ane Accompt of the familie of Bemersyde which is the only familie Extant of the pictish Nation in Scotland and undoubted Representative of the last King of Picts`, undated (folio 285). This is apparently unpublished but probably in some way related to ‘Ane Genealogical Account of the Ancient Family of the Haigs of Bemersyde in the Merse’, written by Robert Mylne in 1710 (included among the papers of Earl Haig in Register House) and published in part in ‘The Haigs of Bemersyde’. For another related manuscript of Robert Mylne, see Adv.MS.15.2.29: ‘Genealogies of several lairds in Scotland’, number 58, ‘Haig of Bemersyde’. The coat of arms of this family is shown on folio 292 of the present manuscript.

(ix) `Memoriall given by the Earle Balcarres to King James the 7th at St. Germans of his subjects in Scotland yr behaviour after forced abdication in anno 1688`, a copy of a narrative by Colin, Earl of Balcarres (folio 293). The manuscript corresponds with the published version ‘An Account of the Affairs of Scotland’; ‘A Collection of Scarce and Valuable Tracts’, volume xi, page 487, and Ruddiman`s edition of 1754. For other copies see MSS.1911 and 3738, Adv.MSS.32.3.11, 33.7.12-33.7.13, 49.7.6, and Wod.Oct.VI.

(x) Copy of the confession of James, Earl of Morton, 1581 (folio 341). ‘The forme of the conference that was betwixt the Earle of Morton, John Durie and Master Walter McCany and such things as they had of him whereof they can remember yt day the said Earle offered whilk was the second day of June 1581’. It was published as an Appendix to the 3rd edition of ‘Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland’. This present copy corresponds with the printed text but the last few paragraphs are incomplete and part of the last paragraph is omitted altogether.

(xi) ‘A Short Relation of the Origin of the Keiths in Scotland with a list of the predecessors of the present Earl Marischal of that Kingdome. Being an Abstract of the History of that Noble Family ... 1699`; Aberdeen, 1700 (folio 349). This item is not in Mylne`s hand. It appears in print with several variations in the text in ‘An Historical and Authentic Account of the Ancient and Noble Family of Keith’ by Peter Buchan, Peterhead, 1820. According to Buchan, the genealogical material was taken mainly from two original manuscripts. The first was a manuscript `of great antiquity` in the family of Marischal and the second a manuscript of 1746 beginning with the section on George, 4th Earl Marischal, which was also published in the ‘Aberdeen Magazine’, number xl.

(xii) Copy, in Robert Mylne`s hand, of a ‘Warrand by King George for a Coat of Armes to Lord Cullen’, dated 17 May 1720 (folio 367 verso).

(xiii) Copy of ‘A Funeral Speech on the Death of ... George, Earl Marischall Lord Keith and Altrie’, written originally in Latin by William Ogston, Professor of Moral Philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen (folio 369).

(xiv) Poem, by the Lord Advocate, Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, entitled `Caelia`s Country-house and Closet` (folio 385). The poem was published for the first time in Thomas Ruddiman`s edition of Mackenzie`s ‘Collected Works’. This copy is in an unidentified hand of the 18th century.