Mainly original manuscripts, 1772-1797, of Thomas Madison, purveyor and paymaster for the Cherokee expedition of 1776 and longtime surveyor of Botetourt County, Virginia. Several letters of scattered dates from 1780 to 1797 were written by his brothers: John, Jr., surveyor of Monongalia County; James, president of the College of William and Mary and first Episcopal bishop of Virginia; Gabriel; and George. Other correspondents were John Brown, Jr., Charles Cameron, Arthur Campbell, S[ally] B. Campbell, William Christian and his wife Anne, William Fleming, Francis Preston, R. Rutherford, and Caleb Wallace. Topics discussed include land affairs and settlement in Kentucky, use and treatment of blacks, legislation in the Virginia assembly and in Congress, and the new federal constitution. In a letter of 1788 Arthur Campbell referred to The Federalist and to the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Commentaries on the Constitution occur in letters of James Madison (1787), William Fleming (1788), and Francis Preston (1796). The bulk of Thomas Madison's papers, however, consist of records, 1776-1777, relating to the Cherokee expedition, including financial accounts, receipt books to settle militia claims kept by Madison and by Hugh Barclay, and John South's notebook listing packhorses and packmen. Also found in the Madison papers are a sheet listing sheriff's fees for Botetourt County, May-December, 1772; a surveyor's notebook, 1777, by an unidentified surveyor; and a few pages of an account book, 1780-1781, kept by William Madison for troops commanded by George Rogers Clark.

Closing this volume is a series of printed articles from the Fincastle Herald (1873), which were written by Frederick Johnston about the following Botetourt County persons: William Anderson, and his wife Ann, Henry Bowyer, James Breckinridge, Martha (Mrs. Nathaniel) Burwell, Martha (Mrs. James) Dezell, Matthew Harvey, Charles Johnston, Hazlett and Robert Kyle, Andrew Lewis, Robert Logan, Liley (Mrs. Joseph) Reid, Mrs. Eve Teney, Grace (Mrs. Frank) Thomas, James S. Walrond, Edward Watts, and the Christian, McAfee, and McClanahan families.