James Abercromby was Judge Advocate General, 1827; Chief Baron of the Exchequer Court, Scotland, 1830-1832; a member of the Whig Cabinet as Master of the Mint, 1834; Speaker of the House of Commons, 1835-1839; and created 1st Baron Dunfermline, 1839.

Much of the family correspondence is from Ralph Abercromby, 2nd Baron and from and his wife, Mary Elizabeth, a daughter of the 2nd Earl of Minto.

With the papers are a few letters, 1909-1912, to Alexander Lockhart Trotter, a son of the Honourable Mary C E Trotter of Colinton, only child of the 2nd Baron and Baroness.