The contents are as follows.

(i) Miscellaneous papers, 1647-1781, consisting chiefly of letters and orders addressed to William Farquharson of Inverey by Middleton and others, in connection with the Royalist campaign in Scotland, 1647-1656. 'Archaeologia Scotia', volume v, appendix, page 57. (Folio 1.)

(ii) Orders of General Monck relating to Sir Robert Campbell of Glenorchy and the McNabs, 1654-1655, with modern transcripts, and a chaplain's commission given to Alexander Cooper, 1660. ‘Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland’, volume vii, page 267. (Folio 14.)

(iii) Papers in Polish, 1662-1672, undated, apparently from a collection of papers of John Dawson, of which there are abstracts, 1753, on folios 33-36. Some relate to Francis Gordon, mentioned in one abstract in association with Dawson. These papers were among those now in MSS.2090-2091. (Folio 25.)

(iv) Twelve letters of General James Wolfe to his friend Lieutenant-Colonel William Rickson, 1749-1758. Printed in 'Original Correspondence of General Wolfe', by John Buchanan, in "Tait's Edinburgh Magazine", volume xvi (1849), page 804. With portraits of Wolfe and Rickson and a note on Rickson (folio 69 verso). ‘Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland’, volume iv, page 442. (Folio 37.)

(v) Papers of the Birrells, parchment-makers, Kinnesswood. They were the last parchment-makers in Scotland, and supplied many Government offices. Description of the manufacture of parchment, by John Birrell, with typed copies, and some accounts, circa 1784, excise-returns, 1791-1793, 1797, excise-licences, 1798-1799, 1811, orders for skins, 1778, 1819, undated, petitions relating to duties on vellum, etc. ‘Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland’, volume lxi, page 25. (Folio 70.)

(vi) Letters, 1801-1855, undated, to Dr Robert Anderson, editor of the ‘Edinburgh Magazine’, his daughters, and his son-in-law David Irving, from various literary celebrities; also Scottish signatures of the seventeenth century (folio 130), a letter of Smollett, 1759 (folio 101), and letters relating to the collection, 1879, 1896 (folio 96). Presented to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland by Miss Janet Irving, 1896. (Folio 95.)

(vii) Letters, 1803, 1806, relating to ecclesiastical matters, addressed in the name of Pope Pius VII to Henry Stuart, Cardinal York, as Bishop of Ostia and Velletri. For documents relating to indulgences accompanying these letters, see Ch.905-913. (Folio 131.)

(viii) Correspondence and notes, 1856, 1862, of David Laing, and prints, relating to a paper, 'Edinburgh in Early Times', read by him to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland on 8 December 1862. Proof-sheets and magazine articles which were with these papers have been transferred to the Department of Printed Books. (Folio 151.)

(ix) Miscellaneous autographs of celebrities, 1690-1840, undated. ‘Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland’, volume ix, page 393. (Folio 171.)

(x) Miscellaneous papers found together but perhaps not forming part of one collection: weekly account of prisoners in Aberdeen Gaol, 1747 (folio 192); letters, 1788-1789, to Alexander Duncan of Fort, chiefly regarding elections, and including tradesmen's bills (folio 193); letter, 1841, of James Silk Buckingham (folio 216). See ‘Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland’, volume vi, page 439, for some of these letters.