Scope and Contents These papers contain the business archive of the Stevensons from the late 18th century to the mid 20th century. They consist mainly of letterbooks, incoming correspondence, reports, memoranda, maps and plans, with a large number of printed pamphlets and reports by the Stevensons and others, concerning all the civil engineering works with which the family was involved. The main interest lies in the material relating to harbours and to lighthouse construction, and to the work of the Northern...

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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).

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Regarding making and erecting an iron roof on the engine house of the Grand Junction Water Work Company in Paddington.

Scope and Contents From the Fonds: The collection covers the Admiral the Honourable Sir Alexander Forrester Inglis Cochrane’s service in the Egyptian expedition of 1801, in his command off Ferrol in 1804 and 1805, and as Commander-in-Chief of the Leeward Islands from 1805 to 1814 and of the North American Station in 1814 and 1815; and that of Admiral Sir Thomas John Cochrane chiefly as Governor of Newfoundland from 1825 to 1834, and as second-in-command and, later, Commander-in-Chief of the East India Station from 1842 to...

Scope and Contents From the Fonds: John Rennie was one of the distinguished group of Scottish engineers whose work contributed so much to the industrial and commercial development of the United Kingdom in the early 19th century. With the exception of roads, in which he appears not to have been interested, and steam engines, which he promised Watt not to build - though he frequently constructed the accompanying machinery - there was very little in the field of engineering that lay outside the range of his activities. This...

Scope and Contents The contents are as follows. (i)-(vi) Harbours (i) Aberdeen, letters and accounts 1830, 1833, and a draft of the section of the ‘Life of Thomas Telford, Civil Engineer, written by himself’ relating to the harbour. (Folio 1.) (ii) Courtown, letters and reports, 1830-1833. See also MS.19978. (Folio 15.) (iii) Dundee, letters, 1860-1861, 1833. (Folio 50.) (iv) London, St Katharine's Dock, correspondence, report, and share certificates, 1825-1830. (Folio 58.) (v) Trinity, letter, 1834. (Folio...

Scope and Contents From the Fonds: John Rennie was one of the distinguished group of Scottish engineers whose work contributed so much to the industrial and commercial development of the United Kingdom in the early 19th century. With the exception of roads, in which he appears not to have been interested, and steam engines, which he promised Watt not to build - though he frequently constructed the accompanying machinery - there was very little in the field of engineering that lay outside the range of his activities. This...

Scope and Contents From the Series: William Nassau Elliot of Wells was Commissary and Commissary-General to the allied army in Germany, 1761-173, and his son, William Elliot of Wells was Member of Parliament for Portarlington, 1801-1802, and for Peterborough, 1802-1818, and Chief Secretary for Ireland in the ‘Talents' Ministry, 1806-1807. The Elliots of Wells were only very distantly related to the Elliots of Minto, the common ancestor being Robin Elliot of Redheugh (florished 1582). However, William Elliot of Wells was a...

Scope and Contents From the Fonds: George Combe was educated at Edinburgh High School and at Edinburgh University, where he studied law; he became a Writer to the Signet in 1812. At this time he began to study the phrenological works of Franz Josef Gall and Johann Kaspar Spurzheim, and soon became a fervent advocate of that science. In 1837 he gave up his legal practice to devote himself to spreading the causes of phrenology, secular education, and criminal and prison reform, travelling widely in Europe and America. His views...

Scope and Contents R Blackadder worked in Dundee, and appears to have been a member of the family of mapmakers and civil engineers from Berwickshire. He was part estate management consultant and part engineer. His interests ranged from manure and drainage, to the construction of damheads, ice houses, bridges, and railway curves. He also made notes on landlord tenant relations, on crop rotation, and on the organisation of various large estates. His work was primarily in Angus, but he spent some time in...

Scope and Contents From the Series: The estate papers for the Roxburghshire, Fife, and Angus possessions of the Elliots of Minto provide a very full account of the history of these lands from the middle of the eighteenth century until the First World War. In particular the correspondence of the successive heads of the family with their factors and Edinburgh lawyers covers every aspect of estate management.The papers relating to Minto contain little material from before 1696, the year in which Sir Gilbert Elliot,...

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Some letters, particularly in the first section of correspondence (MSS. 16198-215), also refer to more general political, military and social events.

Scope and Contents From the Fonds: Auldbar was bought in 1753 by William Chalmers, a Gibraltar merchant whose family had owned land in Aberdeenshire, at Federate and Hazlehead. His father and brother were physicians in Aberdeen, and the papers as arranged below begin with medical records of these men. An important section concerns the trade and administration of Gibraltar in the second quarter of the 18th century, and there is also much mercantile correspondence of the 18th and early 19th centuries. As with the rest of this...

Scope and Contents The contents are as follows. (i) Letters and estimate concerning the purchase by the government, for the use of the dockyard at Deptford, of the engine belonging to the Honourable George Villiers at Aldenham, 1811-1813 (folio 1); (ii) Reports, possibly by William Murdock, on the engines at Ale and Cakes, and Dolcoath copper mines near Redruth in Cornwall, 1782 (folio 9); (iii) Description of a Boulton and Watt engine made for Mark Bell, Battersea, undated (folio 13); (iv) Letters concerning...

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The contents are as follows:

Papers concerning printing, 1879-1886, undated (folio 1); the Reserve Fund, 1896-1900 (folio 97), the Smieton Fund, 1885 (folio 198), and the Widows' Fund, 1845-1896 (folio 244).

Scope and Contents From the Collection:

Each volume has a contents list. Inglis was Lord Advocate in 1852 and 1858, Lord Justice Clerk from 1858 to 1867, and Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session from 1867 to 1891.