This fonds contains records created by Robertson Masson & Co. as part of their work as merchants between 1835 and 1844. Robertson Masson & Co. were based in Montreal and served clients in Ontario, Quebec, and in the northeastern United States.
Records in this fonds are arranged chronologically, and are divided into files based on the year of their creation. The fonds consists primarily of business correspondence that includes information about accounts and orders, as well as financial records such as bills, receipts, and statements of account.
The collection consists of documents amassed by Roderick Mackenzie. Among the Masson manuscripts there are other series of letters; as well as journals kept by North-Westers and various business documents. Some of this material exists as originals; others are contemporary copies - the George Keith letters for example are contemporary copies on paper watermarked 1827. The collection also includes some duplicate texts - contemporary copies or later nineteenth-century copies that in some cases represent edited versions of the texts. Samuel Wilcocke's account of the death of Benjamin Frobisher exists in a draft original (or contemporary copy) and in a late nineteenth-century clean copy. Of course Benjamin Frobisher did not die in the dramatic circumstances as recorded by Wilcocke, but peacefully in Quebec City in 1821.
Two general orders of the British Army's Forces in North America that are related to two fires that occurred in Quebec City on 28 May 1945 and 28 June 1845. The general orders contain reports detailing the sequence of events leading up to and during the fires, as well as the actions of the soldiers fighting the fires, and the damaged caused by the flames. The orders also include messages of thanks to the soldiers and their commanding officers from community leaders. Major-General James A. Hope was in command of the soldiers at Quebec City and submitted the reports to the Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of Wellington.
Fonds contains bound manuscript entitled "Pictorial stories of the Professions" by Miss M. Sinclair. The manuscript is written in brown ink in a cursive script and illustrated with cuttings from contemporary comic books, some likely hand coloured.
Collection contains two financial documents related to McGill College. The first is a memorandum between the College and its creditors in which the College agrees to pay out dividends and pay in installments towards the balance of the College's debt. It is signed by the individual creditors as well as by the principal of McGill College, Edmund A. Meredith. The memorandum contains a list of creditors of McGill College with their names and occupations listed, including William Lyman, druggist, Robert Abraham, printer, John Keller, merchant, and many others. A note dated 24 March 1847 with a response from representatives of the creditors is pasted on. The second document is a ledger sheet dated from 1844 to 1847 with the caption: "The Directors of McGill College to Joseph Hitchens."
Fonds consists of a printed copy of Babbage's autobiographical Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864) interleaved with his letters, 1804-1847, from contemporary scientists, including John Dalton, Michael Faraday, Hans Christian Oersted, Sir George Biddell Airy, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Sir Richard Owen, and H. F. Talbot.
Collection contains a manuscript letter from Henry Lyman to his wife, Mary, in Granby; dated July 25, 1849, when the druggist shop Wm. Lyman & Co. was located at 194 and 196 St. Paul St. in Montreal, the letter deals principally with the cholera epidemic in the city.
