Papers relating to James Steuart's research into the history of Jardine, Matheson & Co. There are many letters (including copies), addressed mostly to Stuart, and including some groupings by subject matter. The correspondents include John M. Aitken, C.E. Anton, Evelyn Banbury, B.D.F. Beith, J.J. Bell-Irving, D.G.M. Bernard, H. Bowring, F.H. Bulkeley-Johnson, V. Bulkeley-Johnson, W. Cruickshank, W.J. Gresson, Marion Keswick, David Landale, L.N. Leefe, Rudolph Lowe, C.L. Magniac, Hugh Matheson, William McKie, R.W. Morris, A. Douglas Murray, Alfred Brooke Smith, Geraldine Webber, B.R. Whittall, Hugh Whittall, James Whittall, J.B.K. Whittall, M.D. Whittall and S. Whittall.

The remaining material includes many manuscript and typescript notes, containing mainly biographical information on members of the firm and their families, and including sets of papers on the Beale and Magniac families. The other items, which include some early original material, include a printed petition from Mrs Rachel Johnstone, otherwise Jardine, widow of David Jardine of Muirhousehead, to the Lords of Council and Session to appoint James Jardine to be factor loco tutoris to her children, 20 December 1827, and a printed petition from James Jardine, farmer at Chipknow, to the same, applying to resign his appointment as factor on the grounds of ill health, 2 June 1828; two typescript copies of an undated letter from Francis Magniac to Daniel Beale; an envelope containing two copies of the address by the commanders and officers of the Honorable East India Company Service to William Jardine, November 1833; borrowing slips for library books; newscuttings; and an envelope containing printed black and white copies of pictures of Sir R.W.B. Jardine, S.S. 'Lamont' (2), and the clipper 'Cairngorm' (2).