Showing Browse Resources: 1 - 25 of 334
Account of the Scots Benedictine abbey at Ratisbon, copied apparently in 1684 for the abbot, Placid Fleming, by Andrew Cook, one of the monks.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.34.6.1
Scope and Contents
The text is an excerpt from ‘Ratisbona religiosa’, the fourth (and largest) volume of ‘Ratisbona dioecesis illustrata’, a work in 7 volumes on the diocese of Ratisbon, written about 1660 by its chancellor, Eberhard Wassenberg. The work, which is little more than a catena of excerpts mostly from printed sources, was never published.
Dates:
Circa 1660.
Accounts concerning the estate of Maria de Jonge (wife of Cornelis de Jonge of Ellemeet, Receiver-General of the United Provinces),bequeathed, in 1732 to her daughter, Maria Margaretta, Baroness North and Gray, later Lady Elibank.
Series
Identifier: Adv.MSS.81.4.3-81.4.6
Dates:
1732-1744.
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 containing copies of religious tracts, at least one of which is of John Livingstone, Minister of Ancrum, in the same hand as the 'Life' of Livingstone in Adv. MS.34.5.19.
Item
Identifier: MS.3858
Scope and Contents
The date 1673 (folio 53 verso) indicates that the manuscript was written after John Livingstone's death.The contents are as follows.(i) Livingstone's 'Memorable Characteristics' (folio 1); this is not one of the copies used for W K Tweedie's edition in ‘Select Biographies’ (Wodrow Society, 1845), volume i;(ii) 'The notes of some sermons knit together anent personall covenanting &c.' (folio 30);(iii) Questions on the duties of Christians,...
Dates:
1673.
Album of Adam White, the naturalist (1817-1879), entitled on the cover 'Weeds and wild flowers'.
Item
Identifier: MS.10306
Scope and Contents
A draft title-page (folio 24) suggests that in 1850 Adam White was proposing to publish a work on 'Weeds and wild-flowers loved by Wordsworth', and the first part of the album contains a collection of materials towards this purpose: drawings and engravings of wild flowers with some specimens of pressed flowers, newspaper-cuttings, and copies of letters and poems of Wordsworth.The collection of information is then extended to include other poets: Coleridge, Cowper, Southey,...
Dates:
Mid 19th century-?late 19th century.
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.
Albums of letters and documents, almost entirely of Scottish interest, written by or relating to historical celebrities, and dealing with public and private affairs.
Sub-Series
Identifier: MSS.2955-2956
Dates:
1589-1881.
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.
Balcarres Papers.
Collection
Identifier: Adv.MSS.29.2.1-29.2.9a
Scope and Contents
In the original inventory (a copy of which is at MS.3581, folios 6-7) signed by Thomas Ruddiman, then Underkeeper of the Library, the papers are listed in thirty-eight bundles. Most of these were arranged and bound during the period 1820-1849. Of the remainder, Adv.MSS.19.1.24 and 29.2.9a were bound in 1896, when it was not realised that Adv.MS.19.1.24 belonged to the collection. Adv.MS.16.2.3, now a small quarto volume, had also become separated from the rest of the papers, but can be...
Dates:
1231-1686, and undated.
`Book of Opinions`, volumes 2 and 3, containing copies of opinions and memorials of English Crown counsel in matters of customs and excise arising in the Exchequer or Treasury.
Series
Identifier: Adv.MS.28.3.1(i)-(ii)
Scope and Contents
The volumes were copied in July 1751 for John Maule, Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland, from other copies belonging to the Board of Customs in Edinburgh.
Dates:
1727-1746.
Book of prayers titled ‘A golden chain to link the penitent sinner unto God. By R. B., Edinburgh, 1742’.
Item
Identifier: MS.1748
Scope and Contents
The title is laid out like that of a printed book; on the last page are the words, ‘Wrote By William Jackson Junior Writer in Edinburgh, And finished this 31st December, 1742’, It seems, therefore, to be a copy of another manuscript or a printed book.
Dates:
1742.
‘Breviary of the Decisions of the Lords of Session ... and of the Acts of Sederunt, from June, 1661, to July, 1681, observed by Sir James Dalrymple of Stair.’
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.81.1.1
Scope and Contents
The Acts of Sederunt, 1661-1681, as in the printed ‘Decisions of the Lords of council and session’, are followed by a summary of Decisions arranged alphabetically according to subject. The text is apparently copied from an incomplete manuscript.At the end, inverted, is a copy of ‘Instructions and rules ... to the Commissaries, clerks, procurators fiscalls, and other members of the court of the whole ecclesiasticall jurisdiction,’ forwarded under cover of a Royal letter dated...
Dates:
1661-1681.
`Bualög.`
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.21.3.8
Scope and Contents
Note by F Magnusson: `No. 16. Leges Oeconomicæ Islandiæ cum Indice.`
Dates:
1775.
Chartulary of the Hospital of the Holy Trinity at Soutra, written in 1399 by William de Cranstoun, notary public.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.34.4.1
Scope and Contents
The charters, which are not in chronological order, cover the period 1162-circa 1330. They are followed by a copy of Cranstoun`s notarial instrument concerning the making of the chartulary (folio 25) and copies of two charters of 1426 and 1440 in different hands (folio 26 verso).
Some of the initials have simple penwork decoration by the scribe, whose notarial sign is also given (folio 25 verso).
Dates:
1162-circa 1330.
`Chronicle of Perth`, 1210-1668, also known as Mercer`s Chronicle and Fleming`s Chronicle, with other documents relating to the burgh of Perth.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.35.4.4
Scope and Contents
The `Chronicle` was compiled probably between 1600 and 1668 by more than one person. Though attributed to John Mercer, town clerk of Perth, only the latter part appears to be his work. From 1660 it is almost entirely a register of burials.
Other items in the volume are a fragment of a legal memorial, circa 1597, concerning the foundation of the King James VI Hospital in Perth (folio 1), and a group of letters concerning Royal Burgh affairs (1614-1628), all copies (folio 20).
Dates:
?1600-1688.
`Collection of armorial bearings, inscriptions, etc.` made by Alexander Deuchar.
Series
Identifier: Adv.MS.32.7.1A-B
Dates:
1812-1841.
Collection of genealogical material on various Scottish families and items of historical interest copied by Robert Mylne, the antiquary, in the late 17th or early 18th century.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.34.6.10
Scope and Contents
The contents of the manuscript are as follows:(i) ‘The Portrait of True Loyalty exposed in the Family of Gordon, without interruption to this present year 1691. With a Relationof the Castle of Edr. in the year 1689’ (folio 1), which is attributed to David Burnet, a Catholic Priest. The original manuscript, which was in Blairs College, Aberdeen (‘The House of Gordon’, page xxxvi), is at the Scottish Catholic Archives, Columba House, Edinburgh, where it has the...
Dates:
1554-1720.
Collection of papers, chiefly seventeenth century, which appear to have belonged to Richard Almack, Suffolk.
File
Identifier: MS.3922
Scope and Contents
The papers fall into two main categories: papers relating to John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale, including an account of fees paid by him on his installation as a Knight of the Garter, 1672, printed in ‘The Herald and Genealogist’, volume iii (1866), pages 222-224; and papers relating to Catherine Murray, Countess of Dysart, including a number of passes signed by prominent parliamentarians, such as Warwick and Essex. There are also typescript copies of correspondence between Richard Almack...
Dates:
1567-1873, undated.
`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.
‘Collections’ made by Robert Beatson, Doctor of Laws, containing a number of genealogical papers and copies of military documents which he probably used when engaged on compiling ‘Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain from 1727 to 1783’.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.34.3.21
Scope and Contents
The contents of the volume include:(i) Genealogical accounts in a variety of hands of a number of British peers, collected while Beatson was gathering material for his work on the English Peerage. (See also Adv.MSS.33.5.9-33.5.10). For another copy of the account of the family of Calder (folio 29), see MS.9982.(ii) An account, in Beatson`s hand, of the Parish of Dysart, his birthplace, undated (folio 57).(iii) Description of a Tour of Scotland made by...
Dates:
1785-1803, and undated.