McDonald's correspondence, 1791-1860, mostly concerns business and property matters, but also includes personal correspondence. There are statements of account with McTavish, Frobisher & Co., 1799; with McTavish, Fraser & Co., 1803-1804; with McTavish, McGillivray & Co., 1808-1809. There are two volumes of autobiographical notes assembled in 1859 and covering the period 1791-1816.
There is a second copy of the autobiography, probably transcribed in the late 19th century. Written on the front fly leaf is the name: A.E. MacDonald. It has 63 leaves, and there are minor textual variants.
Collection consists of minutes of a meeting of the Committee of Ladies for the Relief of French Immigrants, Ladies and Female Children, 7 June 1796, as well as papers concerning relief of French clergy and laity.
There is business correspondence, 1792-1800, with letters from among others Alexander Mackenzie, Joseph Frobisher, Alexander Henry, Simon Fraser and Roderick Mackenzie. There are also minutes and resolutions of the Executors of McTavish in a bound volume; and a contemporary copy of the minutes of the executors of his will, 1805.
The collection contains business correspondence, including letters to William Grant and Grant, Campion & Co. from Brickwood, Pattle, & Co., 1792-1793, and letters from Brickwood & Daniell, John Blackwood, and McTavish, Fraser and Co., 1799-1800. There is also a bound letter book for Grant and Laframboise, Montreal, 1800-1801 with additional loose leaves of letter copies dating between 1798 and 1800.
Contains copies of fur trade documents bearing on the Mandan-Hidatsa trade with North West Company posts in central Canada, 1793-1805. Includes the journals of John Macdonell (McGill), David Thompson (Archives of Ontario), François-Antoine Larocque (LAC & Université de Montréal, Baby Collection. Draft before publication of: Early fur trade on the Northern Plains: Canadian traders among the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians, 1738-1818 : the narratives of John Macdonell, David Thompson, Franc̦ois-Antoine Larocque, and Charles McKenzie / edited and with an introduction by W. Raymond Wood and Thomas D. Thiessen. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, c1985.
Macdonell's papers comprise a journal for 1793-1795, which L.R. Masson entitled "Assinoboines-Rivière Qu'appelle", and an account of the Red River, approximately 1797.
Collection consists of papers of a British naval officer, who sailed on the Bounty. Includes notes and observations on voyages in the South Atlantic and East Indies including directions for navigating the Straits of Banquey and other oriental passages (1801), notes on the Cape of Good Hope (1796) and St. Helena (1805). Also, "Nautical Remarks and Memoranda of Occurences on Board H.M.S. Polyphemus, Donegal and Nereus between 22 Oct. 1806 and 19 Nov. 1810". With a note on reason and a chart of the Road of Basque. Items marked "Morgan" on paper watermarked 1797 and 1805.
Fonds consists of an album of autograph letters and signatures, including letters both to and from Nichols. Correspondents include John Temple (26 November 1821) and Charles Burney Jr. (5 January 1809). Also represented in the fonds are Nichols's children John Bowyer Nichols (1779-1863) and John Gough Nichols (1806-1873), including a letter to John Gough Nichols from Sir Henry Ellis (2 December 1842).