The contents include: material relating to the Church of Scotland, seventeenth century, and to the Episcopal Church, 1735-1744; correspondence of Father Richard Hay, 1716-1728; letters relating to the Rising of 1745; letters addressed to John Spottiswoode of Spottiswoode (died 1793), chiefly by Lieutenant-General G H Hutton, the antiquary, regarding the former's projected work on Scottish monasteries, 1785-1789; and correspondence of Lieutenant-Colonel George Spottiswoode on the history of the family, 1845-1851. Two unsigned letters, the writer of which contemplates publishing a work on the art and office of a notary public, 1721-1722 (folios 58, 65), may be by John Spottiswoode, Keeper of the Advocates' Library.