Original manuscripts, 1774-1812, most of which were arranged chronologically. A substantial number of Daniel Smith's papers are included: a North Carolina land agreement (1787); letters, 1787-1793; and two maps. His correspondence pertains primarily to Indian depredations in Tennessee, including the death of Isaac Bledsoe. Writers were Anthony Bledsoe, Catherine (Mrs. Isaac) Bledsoe, Henry Bradford, John Dickson, Edward Douglass, Francis Walker, David Wilson, and Joseph Winchester. Smith also retained a draft of his letter of condolence and advice to Mrs. Bledsoe.

Other manuscripts are more miscellaneous in content and may have come from a variety of sources. They include: an early but undated narrative about the adventures of Andrew Lewis's son Thomas with his Negro servant Pompey and the Ohio Indian known as John Hollis; a letter (1774) by Isaac Shelby to his uncle John Shelby and a letter (1774) of William Bowyer to his sister Mrs. William Fleming both describing the battle of Point Pleasant; a Fincastle County notice for election of delegates to the Virginia Convention (1775); a proposal (1776) by the Presbytery of Hanover for the establishment of an educational academy in Augusta County; Francis Duke's commissary accounts (1777) for Virginia militia near Fort Henry; a Virginia bond (1779) signed by Isaac Lebo charged with being a Tory; a list of Virginia counties in 1779; and a judicial order (1779) to the sheriff of Washington County, North Carolina. Also included are a letter concerning Kentucky land affairs from John May to William Fleming; a few Kentucky land agreements (1784, 1789, 1802, undated) by Lewis Craig and James Power; a second or later draft [1778] of a letter to the Shawnee chiefs on the death of Cornstalk in the handwriting of William Fleming with annotations by William Preston (See an earlier draft in Volume 2 ZZ.); rules established in the Kentucky court of appeals in 1793-1794; a letter (1794) concerning a legal case written by John Caldwell to Isaac Shelby; an Ohio justice of the peace warrant (1796) signed by Aaron Cadwell to authorize a seizure for debt incurred for delinquent house rent in Cincinnati; a land survey book (1800) by Walter Evans in Powell's Valley, Virginia; a letter (1802) on a legal matter by James Trotter to William Croghan.

Two printed broadsides are found: a proposal (1788) to form a company to enable James Rumsey to build steamboats and improved milling machinery; and a proclamation (1794) providing for prosecution of persons involved in the Whiskey Rebellion, issued by Governor Henry Lee.

A few of the pieces were bound out of sequence: the 17,74 Bowyer letter was erroneously filled under 1794; the draft of the message to the Shawnee was classified as undated; and the Rumsey broadside follows the undated items.