The contents are as follows:
(i) General correspondence (folio 1);
(ii) Papers concerning property of the Forbeses: Ferintosh (including Inverallochie's debts and the Ferintosh excise) (folio 41) and lands in general (folio 59);
(iii) Papers concerning private business (folio 65);
(iv) Inverness: petitions of the town for relief from taxation, levies, and the maintenance of the garrison, and instructions to John Forbes, 2nd of Culloden, as commissioner of the burgh to Parliament; also disputes with the Provost and magistrates regarding Kingsmill and the stent (folio 80);
(v) Inverness-shire and neighbouring counties: valuations, petitions of gentlemen and heritors against various burdens, the sufferings of the lowland gentry at the hands of and on account of highland evil-doers, eighteenth-century elections, etc. (folio 104);
(vi) 'Information to the K: anent the peace of the country, 1691', by Duncan Forbes, 3rd of Culloden, being drafts of portions of the memoirs printed in ‘Culloden papers’ (London, 1815) page 14 (folio 136);
(vii) 'Some thoughts concerning the Highlands of Scotland', by Lord President Forbes, a portion of the memorandum printed in ‘Culloden papers’, page 297 (folio 143);
(viii) Memorial to the Admiralty on the navigation of West Highland waters; by Lord President Forbes (folio 147);
(ix) Papers concerning the risings of 1715 and 1745 (folio 148);
(x) Papers of Lord President Forbes concerning manufactures, revenue, and forfeited estates (folio 155);
(xi) Letters of the 2nd Duke of Argyll (folio 160) and the 3rd Duke, as Lord Ilay (folio 167), and papers relating to their estates on Mull, Tiree, and the mainland (folio 173);
(xii) Papers concerning affairs of persons other than the Forbeses (folio 194);
(xiii) Miscellaneous material collected by various Forbeses, including some regarding Scottish peerages (folio 230);
(xiv) Fragments (folio 257);
(xv) Poems and songs, some dated, including a copy of 'A New Song' on the accession of James VI to the English throne, printed by Robert Waldegrave (folio 260), Whig political satires, etc., seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (folio 260);
(xvi) Papers relating to the Inneses of that Ilk (folio 284), including 'Ane account of the origine and succession of the familie of Innes', by Duncan Forbes, 3rd of Culloden, published by Cosmo Innes for the Spalding Club, 1864 (folio 285) (see also MS 2973, folio 25).
