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Additional papers to the collection of John Riddell, the Peerage lawyer.
Series
Identifier: Adv.MSS.81.2.1-81.2.10
Scope and Contents
Most of the correspondence is addressed to James Law, Writer to the Signet, who acted as London agent in many Peerage Cases in which Riddell was involved; and much of it is from other lawyers.
Dates:
16th century-19th century.
`Adversaria`, being miscellaneous notes and copies of correspondence of Sir Robert Sibbald, with scholars such as William Nicolson, Edward Lhuyd and John Smith of Durham on Scottish history and antiquities.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.3.19
Scope and Contents
Smith`s letters (folios 47-61), some of which are originals, concern the records of Scottish history surviving at Durham. Other contents are as follows:(i) Notes on historical manuscripts in Edinburgh University Library (folio 2).(ii) The life of Robert Morison copied from his ‘Plantarum Historiae Universalis Oxoniensis’, part 3, with notes on the same volume (folio 4 verso).(iii) `A list of Gold Scotch Coyns` (folios 13 verso, 18).(iv) `The...
Dates:
Circa 1682-1706, and undated.
Album of ‘Jacobite relics’, containing printed and manuscript material and portraits, formerly owned, perhaps started, by James Maidment, and containing additions made by a later owner.
File
Identifier: MS.2960
Scope and Contents
The printed matter is recorded in the Catalogue of Printed Books. In addition to some forgeries, the manuscript material is as follows:(i) Letter, undated, of John Stevenson, James Maidment's publisher, probably to Maidment (folio 2);(ii) A version, in a hand of about Maidment's time, of part of the poem on Lord justice Clerk Whitelaw, 'Old Nick was in want of a lawyer in hell,' printed by Maidment in ‘A book of Scotish pasquils’ (Edinburgh, 1827), page 73 (folio 2...
Dates:
1696-1891, undated.
Alexander Nimmo`s copy of his account of the survey made by him in the summer of 1806 of the northern, eastern and southern boundaries of Inverness-shire, which he undertook on Telford`s recommendation, whilst rector of Inverness Academy, for the parliamentary commission appointed to fix the county boundaries of Scotland.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.34.4.20
Scope and Contents
The copy is in Nimmo’s own hand, written up in the form of a journal, from the notes which he took in his pocket-book whilst engaged upon the survey. It is written on the rectos of the leaves, the versos being left for maps (folios 11 verso, 12 verso), notes, bearings, and additions to the text. It appears to be incomplete, for it ends rather abruptly (folio 50). It is followed by an explanatory letter to John Rickman, who at the time was secretary to the commissions for making roads and...
Dates:
1806.
Antiquarian papers of James Dennistoun of Dennistoun, advocate and antiquary.
Series
Identifier: Adv.MSS.19.2.16-19.2.27
Scope and Contents
The papers consist of materials for a projected history of Dumbartonshire (Adv.MS.19.2.16-19.2.24), materials towards a projected work on the Scottish religious houses on the Continent (Adv.MS.19.2.25), and notes and extracts of Scottish interest from manuscripts in continental libraries (Adv.MS.19.2.26), together with a record of the bequest of Dennistoun`s manuscripts and a calendar of them (Adv.MS.19.2.27). The papers were arranged and bound by Mark Napier, executor of James...
Dates:
?1825-1856.
Apparently unpublished manuscript of `Gleanings of Antiquity in Forfarshire’ by James Thomson of Dundee.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.35.6.17
Scope and Contents
The manuscript contains:(i) a general topographical description of the area (folio 4);(ii) descriptions of ancient monuments and fortifications found there, including a concise account of the Druids (folio 15);(iii) accounts of excursions made in Perthshire in 1822 (folio 59);(iv) copies of ballads relating to Forfarshire, a translation of a Charter of King John of England to the clergy and people of Arbroath, 1206, and a copy of a reversion of...
Dates:
1825.
`Collection of armorial bearings, inscriptions, etc.` made by Alexander Deuchar.
Series
Identifier: Adv.MS.32.7.1A-B
Dates:
1812-1841.
`Collection of Papers Experiments And Observations Relating to Husbandry, Grass, And other Branches Of Country Affairs,’ by William Baird of Auchmeddan.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.31.4.12
Scope and Contents
The collection was compiled over the years 1736 to 1756, and was written in the latter year (pages iii, 234). It is made up of extracts from books, copies of letters, and notes of the experiences of the writer.
Dates:
1736-1756.
Collection of state papers of the reigns of James VI and Charles I made by Sir James Balfour of Denmilne, Lord Lyon King of Arms.
Collection
Identifier: Adv.MSS.33.1.1-33.1.15
Scope and Contents
The collection is known both as the `Denmilne State Papers` and the `Denmilne Collection`. Less formally it is often referred to as the `Denmilne Manuscripts`.
Dates:
1548-1641.
Commonplace book of the Earl of Buchan.
Item
Identifier: MS.963
Scope and Contents
The comonplace book contains drafts of letters to the ‘Bee’, an inventory of the Earl of Buchan’s property, lists of Scottish portraits, an ode, ‘To the Shepherd of the Cot’, and notes and drafts of papers on the Scottish Peerage and other subjects. Included is a manuscript copy of ‘The New Order of Gooding and Manuring all sorts of Field Land with Common Salts’, by Archibald, afterwards 1st Lord Napier (said to have been printed by Robert Waldegrave), referring to the right to issue...
Dates:
1778-1791.
Composite manuscript consisting of two volumes (folios 1, 75) of copies, circa 1585, 1607, of papers, 1537-1606, in Italian and Latin concerning attempts to restore Roman Catholicism in England in the 16th and early 17th centuries.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.31.4.15
Scope and Contents
Each volume has a contents list (folios 1, 77) and the second volume has its own foliation added in an apparently later hand.The first volume (folios 1-74) consists of copies (in the same hand), made apparently in or about 1585, of the following:(i) ‘Discorso del Priore d`Inghilterra a Papa Pio V circa la Riduttione di quel Regno’ (folio 2), being an account by Sir Richard Shelley, Grand Prior of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, written apparently early in 1570,...
Dates:
1537-1606.
Copies, 17th century, of `Sayings and Observations` by John Livingstone, minister of Ancrum (page 1) and of his notes on the lives of eminent ministers of the Church of Scotland (page 15).
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.32.3.3
Scope and Contents
The end of a religious meditation is written upside-down on page 108.
Dates:
17th century.
Copies, 19th century, and original papers collected by Sir William Fraser, 16th century-1793.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.23.3.25
Scope and Contents
The contents of the manuscript are as follows:(i) Latin legal abbreviations, 16th century. (Folio 1.)(ii) Speech in Latin addressed to `domine doctissime coeterique commilitones mei suavissimi`, in praise of modesty. Late 16th or early 17th century. (Folio 2.)(iii) Transcript, 19th century, of the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 3 February, 1590, concerning the slaughter of David Taillor by William Spottiswood of that Ilk and others. Cf. ‘The...
Dates:
16th century-1793.
Copies, early 18th century, of autobiographies and other works of covenanters.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.34.5.19
Scope and Contents
The manuscript is apparently in the hand of John Elphinston: see Adv.MS.32.3.9, folio 78 verso. Several items in Adv.MS.32.3.9 are also in this hand.The contents of the manuscript are as follows:(i) Autobiography of John Livingstone, minister of Ancrum. It has been published from the version in Wod.Qu.XVIII in ‘Select Biographies’, i, pages 129-197. This manuscript has a few variants from the published version. (Folio 1.)(ii) `An Account of what past when...
Dates:
2nd half of 17th century-early 18th century.
Copies, early 18th century, of letters and memoirs of covenanters.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.32.4.4
Scope and Contents
The contents of the manuscript are as follows:(i) Letters, 1675-1677, of the preacher John Welwood. They are mostly addressed to Elizabeth Collace and her sister Katharine Ross, but there are also a few to the covenanter Richard Cameron. The letters, which are not in strict chronological order, are chiefly religious in nature, but there are occasional mentions of the persecutions in Fife, the Merse and Teviotdale. (Folio 1.)(ii) Memoirs of Katharine Ross. The...
Dates:
1675-early 18th century.
Copies of papers relating to Galloway, in various hands of the 18th century.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.81.4.10
Scope and Contents
The contents of the volume are as follows:(i) Retours in Kirkcudbrightshire, extracted from the Chancery records, 1542-1682; in two series (folios 1, 15).(ii) Copy of an extract (certified by Thomas Gibson, Principal Clerk of Session) of the tax-roll of Kirkcudbrightshire in 1613 (folio 44).(iii) Copy, from the Exchequer records, of the rental of the Bishopric of Galloway in 1685 (folio 46).(iv) Copy of the tax-roll of the Lordship of Galloway,...
Dates:
1542-1685, 1741.
Copy, 16th century, of `Recueil des Principaux Seigneurs qui passerent la Mer avec Guillaume Conquereur d`Angleterre`, a treatise on the genealogy and heraldry of the English nobility written by Jean Benard in 1567.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.3.2
Scope and Contents
The manuscript is similar to the autograph manuscript of 1572 (Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. français 19000), but lacks the dedicatory letter to Charles IX and has no miniatures. The decoration consists of paintings of flowers and fruit, borders and armorial bearings, with some decorated initials. There is a note, ‘Southampton`s Genealogies`, in a 17th-century hand on folio iii.
Dates:
1567.
Copy, 18th century, of an account, descriptive and historical, of the Chanonry of Old Aberdeen and connected institutions, by Thomas (rectius William) Drem, Bailie of Aberdeen, written 1725.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.5.23
Scope and Contents
Originally part (Inv. XII) of the Rose Collection, Adv.MSS.49.7.1-49.7.20; William Rose has added some marginal notes.
Dates:
1725.
Copy by Matthew Craufurd, Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Edinburgh, of ‘History of the University of Edinburgh from 1580 to 1646’ by Thomas Craufurd.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.7.23
Scope and Contents
A colophon dated 20 January 1725, states that Matthew Craufurd made this copy from the original, which then belonged to Laurence Dundas, Professor of Humanity.
The text is preceded by brief notes on purchases by and gifts to the University, 1582-1642.
Dates:
1646, or after.
Copy, late 17th century, of `De jure prelationis Nobilium scotie or A Memoriall of the evidents and writs produced ... before the Comissioners ... anent the precedency and prioritie of dignitie [1606]`, incorporating additional information up to 1667.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.7.6
Scope and Contents
The text is followed by a list of titles of the nobility and other related material (folio 34 verso), and verses and notes on the history of Aberdeen (folio 45). An 18th-century hand has added a list of dates of the patents of Scottish nobles (folio 52).
Dates:
1606-1667.
Copy made by Thomas (Dom Placid) Fleming, Abbot of Ratisbon, of papers in the dispute between the Irish and the Scottish benedictines over the rightful ownership of the former Irish monasteries in Germany, and particularly that of St. James, Ratisbon.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.29.7.1
Scope and Contents
The papers copied are:(i) the supplication for the return of the monasteries made on behalf of the Irish benedictines by Dom Columbanus Duffy, Prior of St. John`s, Waterford, with a list of questions for the Scottish benedictines to reply to (folio 2); (ii) excerpts from documentary and printed sources referred to in the supplication (folio 7); (iii) Fleming`s notes, with additional observations, on all the foregoing (folio 26); (iv) his reply...
Dates:
Late 17th century.
Copy, of about the end of the seventeenth century, by the antiquary Robert Mylne, of ‘Ane account of ane Embassie performed by William Steuart [Stewart], Commendator of Pittenweim, and Mr John Skeen to England, Denmark, and the Princess [Princes] of Germanie in Anno 1590'.
Item
Identifier: MS.2912
Scope and Contents
The account was written by John Skene (afterwards Lord Curriehill) (see folio 42 verso). The mission was to the Protestant princes, and its object was to bring about peace treaties between England and Spain and between France and Spain, or, failing that, an alliance of Denmark, Scotland, and the Germans which should assist the peaceful party against the obdurate. See ‘Calendar of the state papers relating to Scotland... 1547-1603’ (1898-1963), volume x, page xvi. The journal covers the...
Dates:
1590.
Copy of ‘Discourse of coin and coinage’ by Rice Vaughan.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.23.1.4
Scope and Contents
The dedication by Henry Vaughan and the tables and additional material at the end of the published text are omitted.
On folio iv are two inscriptions `for the right honourable the Lord Roberts Lord Privie Seale of England`, and, in another hand, notes about waste land in Ireland with a reference to Sir William Petty.
Dates:
17th century.
Copy of Stair`s ‘Institutions of the Law of Scotland’, written in an unidentified hand apparently in or about 1666.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.25.1.5
Scope and Contents
The general arrangement is the same as that of the first printed edition of 1681 (except that Titles 18 and 19 appear in reverse order), but the text of each title is shorter, contains fewer chapters, and is illustrated with fewer references to case decisions. An alphabetical index of subjects has been added in the same hand (folio 509). At page 307 is a signature of J or T Skene dated April 4 1678, and at folio i is an undated signature probably of John Swinton, Lord Swinton. Inside the...
Dates:
Circa 1666.
Corrected typescript drafts of `Points in time: an autobiography` by Dr William Johnstone, and related materials.
Collection
Identifier: Dep.332
Dates:
1980.