This fonds contains documents created by or created for members of the Hall family and their extended family, beginning with Sarah Barker and ending with Charlotte Anne Vennor Lindsay, her great-great-granddaughter. The documents in the fonds represent the personal relationships and activities of Hall family members, as well as some of their business dealings. They date from between 21 January 1719 and approximately 1912, with the majority of the documents representing the period between 1750 and 1890. The documents were created while members of the Hall family and their relations lived in Montreal, Quebec City, and in New England (including Philidelphia, Andover, and Boston). Other documents were created in parts of Ontario (including Kingston, Fort Erie, and York/Toronto) and Germany (Kirchbrak, Durlach).

The fonds is arranged into four series: Diaries, Correspondence, Financial and legal documents, and Other family papers. The Diaries series consists of bound diaries and loose diary entries created by Hall family members. The correspondence series consists primarily of personal correspondence between Hall family members, with some business correspondence and some letters and notes related to genealogy and a financial legacy. The Financial and legal documents series contains a variety of documents related to personal and household expenses, guardianship of minor children, land sale and management, and the execution of wills and distribution of estates. This series includes accounts, receipts and invoices, loans, power of attorney, land surveys, wills, inventories of estates, a marriage contract, and other documents. Finally, the Other family papers series contains documents that did not fit neatly with the other series. These are related to the Hall family's participation in military, religious, and masonic organizations - documented by certificates, official letters, and a religious manuscript - and also includes a recipe.

Interleaved in a copy of Florio and Bas Bleu are six letters from Hannah More, two from Martha More, and four from Sarah More, one giving an account of Garrick's death.

The fonds documents Swain's career at the Deputy Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, including his role in the standoff at Oka, Quebec, in 1990. One series also consists of research materials collected during the writing of Swain's 2010 books, Oka: A Political Crisis and its Legacy.

Collection contains letters, memorial, other documents dealing with the cultivation of hemp in Lower Canada, including those of Jesse J. P. Pennoyer.

Ellis's 'Notes of my journey to France in 1828' is illustrated with engravings and plans.

This collection reflects Henry S. Chapman's relationships with a number of important figures in Montreal's political and business history, between roughly 1833 and 1853, the period following Chapman's return to London. A significant amount of the material in this collection is related to the 1837-1838 Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions (especially in Montreal), as well as events occurring immediately after the uprisings.

Consists of copies of original material, chiefly correspondence, arranged roughly by date. The contents of letters (1835-1853) include business partnerships, political reform, and personal news. Significant correspondents include Louis-Joseph Papineau, Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, Jacob Dewitt, François-Antoine Larocque (of Laroque and Bernard), Joseph Perreault, and Edmund Bailey O’Callaghan. There is also a partial manuscript on Canadian history and pages from a scrapbook, both dating from the 1830s.

This collection consists of lines on various subjects, 1815-1821.

This fonds consists of professional correspondence and some business documents related to Henry Watts & Co, a company that sold land in Alberta to interested people in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. The correspondence includes both external correspondence with clients and internal communication, between employees of Henry Watts & Co as well as employees of Leighton and Gilbert (agents of the Canadian Pacific Irrigation Colonization Company), to whom they were contracted. The internal correspondence includes lists of potential buyers, discussions of plans to recruit more buyers, organizational details for excursions to Alberta to show buyers available land, sales updates, accounting information, changes in legislation that affect the sale of land, and letters documenting hiring. The external correspondence mostly consists of letters from customers seeking information about purchasing land in Canada (especially Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba) or who were interested in visiting available land for sale, with responses containing information about available land, upcoming excursions and about farming in Alberta at this time, including recommendations of profitable crops and farming methods.

The fonds is described at the file level, and is not divided into series. Files are arranged in chronological order. The fonds consists of handwritten and typed letters, typed copies of letters, and telegrams. It also includes some legal and financial documents.

The greater portion of this material relates to his political activity, including electoral lists for Montréal and notes on qualifications of voters, ca 1895, as well as a Volunteer Electoral League notebook, 1895-1900. His daily journal covers the periods from 1899-1909 and from 1912-1915. Financial notebooks, dated 1897 to 1910, are also included.