The larger part of the collection dates from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, chronicling William Smith's personal and political career, as well as illustrating the lives of his wife Frances and their children. The collection includes letters from Smith's friends, among them Charles James Fox, William Wilberforce and Sir Francis Burdett. The papers also chronicle Smith's time in Paris in 1790, where he witnessed and recorded his reactions to the 14th July celebrations. The collection is most revealing with regard to Smith's domestic arrangements and the upbringing of his children. There are journals of Frances Smith, recording the family's travels throughout the country during the 1780s and 1790s, and her children's correspondence with family and friends. Smith's love of fine art is represented by the auction catalogues and lists of paintings included in the collection, which also contains material relating to the construction of one of the earliest Turkish baths in London, Joseph Lem's Bagnio Building in Newgate Street, and sketches and plans of the long-vanished Parndon Hall in Essex.