The manuscript was probably written in or shortly after 1755, a date which occurs on page 31.

The original work has not been traced; it may or may not have been printed. It was divided into at least twelve sections, and should be identifiable from many references to its pages in the present manuscript, for example: page 86, Lovat's escape from Inverness; pages 15, 153, the meeting of Jacobite leaders at Muirlaggan in May, 1746; pages 165, 246, Murray of Broughton's capture and pardon. It is not Andrew Henderson's ‘History of the Rebellion’, as stated by Andrew Lang and Hume Brown in letters pasted in (folios ii-v). A list of histories which on examination do not seem to be the work in question will be found inside the end cover.