Showing Browse Resources: 1 - 25 of 168
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.
Alchemy: a compilation.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.5.2.1
Scope and Contents
(i) Medical notes. (Folio 1).(ii) `De Alchemia Dialogi II. Quorum prior, Genuinam librorum Gebri sententiam, de industria ab Authore celatam, et figurato sermone involutam retegit, et certis Argumentis probat. Alter Raimundi Lullij Majoricani, Mysteria in lucem producit. Quibus praemittuntur, propositiones centum viginti novem, idem argumentum compendiosa brevitate complectentes. Norimbergae apud Joan. Petretum. Anno MDXLVIII.’ A copy from the printed work (the first part of...
Dates:
17th century.
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 incomplete collection of correspondence and papers of William Marshall and of members of his family, together with related papers compiled by David J Mackenzie, Sheriff-substitute of Glasgow.
Series
Identifier: MSS.15369-15378
Scope and Contents
William Marshall, who was factor to the Duke of Gordon, was known in his own day as a Scottish fiddler and composer of strathspeys, and an inventor. The collection contains almost nothing of musical interest, and the largest single part consists of letters and copies of letters of his sons whilst on active service in India and in the Peninsular War, written to him and to other members of the family.
Dates:
1778-1961, undated.
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.
Biographical and genealogical notes chiefly relating to the Lords of Session, Barons of Exchequer, and members of the Faculty of Advocates, compiled by John Philp Wood (died 1838), Auditor of Excise, Scottish antiquary and biographer.
Series
Identifier: Adv.MSS.37.2.1-37.2.11
Dates:
Early 19th century.
Charters collected by Sir James Balfour of Denmilne.
Series
Identifier: Adv.MS.15.1.18
Scope and Contents
The great majority of the charters concern St Andrews Cathedral or Priory; smaller groups relate to the Abbeys of Dunfermline and Lindores and the House of Friars Preachers in Aberdeen; and there is a miscellaneous secular remnant. There are 17 of the twelfth century, 36 of the thirteenth, 18 of the fourteenth, 23 of the fifteenth, and 9 of the sixteenth.Balfour pasted the charters into a book (which he had previously intended to use for genealogies, having written headings on...
Dates:
12th century-1553, 1627 or after-18th century.
"Cinquant [sic] Octonaires sur la vanité et inconstance du monde, dediez a tresillustre seigneur le conte de Shrewsbury, pour ses estrennes l'an 1607", being a calligraphic copy of the verses by Antoine de la Roche Chandieu, first published anonymously in ‘Les Cantigues du Seigneur de Maisonfleur’.
Item
Identifier: MS.25240
Scope and Contents
The manuscript is written in a variety of calligraphic hands and is decorated throughout with paintings of flowers, birds and insects. The pages containing Octonaires XVII, XXXI and XXXVIII are missing.The original title page and the dedication to the Earl of Shrewsbury have been cut out and pasted onto the verso of folio i and the inside of the front cover respectively.There are a number of later drawings and notes, including records of births of members...
Dates:
[1586, or before]-19th century.
`Collection of armorial bearings, inscriptions, etc.` made by Alexander Deuchar.
Series
Identifier: Adv.MS.32.7.1A-B
Dates:
1812-1841.
Collection of copies of letters and papers concerning the formation of the Irish Treasury Board and the procedures to be adopted by it, with notes on the procedures of the British Treasury.
Series
Identifier: Adv.MS.4.1.2, vols. I-II
Scope and Contents
The volumes have the book-plate of Sylvester Douglas, Baron Glenbervie, and, as he was secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1794-1795, were presumably compiled on his instructions.
Dates:
1793-1794.
`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, 1863-1896, of Robert Dickson Glover, a merchant at Roslin and later in Portobello.
Item
Identifier: MS.14277
Scope and Contents
The book contains verses, historical and literary material, notes of events in Roslin, 1869-1873, and fragments of a diary for 1895-1896. A later hand has added copies of poems and of the will, May 1927, of John Glover who died in 1933 (folio 96).
Dates:
1863-1896, 1927, undated.
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.
Contemporary copy of specifications by John Rennie and others for the Crinan Canal.
Item
Identifier: MS.9499
Scope and Contents
Also included are John Rennie's estimate for the work (folio 33 verso) and notes on the cost of the Forth and Clyde Canal in 1789 (folio 47).
Dates:
1793.
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, 18th century, of records of Parliament and of the Privy Council.
Series
Identifier: Adv.MS.25.1.6(i)-(ii)
Dates:
1401-1602.
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, 1636-1637, of documents and notes of Sir James Balfour on ecclesiastical history.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.2.32
Scope and Contents
The description of the manuscript in the folio catalogue (F.R.186) includes the reference: W.4.16.The contents are as follows:
(i) Copies of commissions, 1626, passing under the great seal (page 1);
(ii) Several proclamations, 1626 (page 13);
(iii) Names of the Sheriffs, Stewards, and Bailies of Scotland, 1606 (page 24);
(iv) Articles and other documents concerning the commission anent tiends (page 28);
(v) Documents connected with the introduction of the Service Book, 1637,...
Dates:
1st half of 17th century.
Copies, 1727 or before, in various hands, of papers concerning Mary Queen of Scots and her reign, apparently collected by James Anderson.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.6.1.19
Scope and Contents
Although not published in the work, James Anderson appears to have collected the material comprising this manuscript for his ‘Collections Relating to the History of Mary Queen of Scotland’ (Edinburgh and London, 1727-1728). A draft of articles of co-partnery between Anderson, his son-in-law John Leitch, and his son Patrick, to publish the Collections is at folio 21. Among the papers copied are:the marriage articles of Mary and François II, 1558 (folio 13 verso);...
Dates:
1558-1620.
Copies and photographic and other reproductions of early maps in British and foreign collections.
Series
Identifier: MSS.3024-3027
Dates:
10th century-17th century, undated.