Coltness is part of modern Wishaw in Stratchlyde Region, Scotland. The manuscripts in the Coltness Papers refer to the following notables and their transactions within the Scottish and British church, state and army:

(1.) Sir James Steuart of Kirkfield and Coltness, born 1608, elected Lord Provost of Edinburgh 1648, and died 1681.

(2.) His sons Sir Thomas Steuart of Coltness, born 1631 and died 1698; and, Sir James Steuart of Goodtrees, born 1635. Sir James was called to the bar on 20 November 1661. He published a political pamphlet in 1669 in defence of peoples' rights and had to flee the country, to Rouen. Later, after another difficulty, he fled again, this time to England. On his return, he had to flee yet again, this time to The Hague in 1681. He was later pardoned, and in 1692 he was appointed as Scotland's Lord Advocate. He resigned in 1709, and died in 1713.

(3.) His son, Sir James Steuart of Goodtrees and Coltness, born 1681, became Scotland's Solicitor-General. He died in 1727.

(4.) His son, Sir James Steuart Denham of Coltness and Westshield, who would later become a political economist, had been born on 21 October 1712. Sir James was educated in North Berwick and entered Edinburgh University in 1724-25 at the age of thirteen, studying law. He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates on 25 January 1735. After that, there followed a period of travel which took him to Leyden, Avignon, and Rome where he was courted by the exiled Stewarts. Sir James returned to Scotland in 1740 and he was in Edinburgh when Prince Charles Edward Stewart occupied the city during the rebellion of 1745. Implicated in the rebellion, Sir James was obliged to leave Scotland for Germany after the Jacobite defeat at Culloden. While in Germany, he published works on political economy in Frankfurt-on-Main and in Tuebingen. He returned to Scotland in 1763 and continued his writing. Sir James died on 26 November 1780 and was buried at Cambusnethan, near Wishaw, Clydesdale.

(5.) His son, the General, Sir James Steuart Denham, was born in August 1744. Because of his father's exile, Sir James had received his education in Germany. He entered the army in 1761 and travelled in France and Germany paying special attention to the armies of these countries. He received a troop of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers in 1766, and became a Major of the 13th Dragoons in 1772. By 1773 he was a Lieutenant-Colonel, and in 1782 was a Colonel. In 1784, Sir James became MP for the county of Lanark. He died in Cheltenham as the senior General of the army on 12 August 1839.