William Baird possibly had an association with Dysart in Fife, Scotland, in the seventeenth century. Within the manuscript, in its first part, there are a number of clues that supply a date to his life and indicate the Scottish origin of the item. Under an explanation of the Dominical Letter system for discovering the day of the week corresponding to any date is included a mnemonic beginning, 'At Dysart dwells George Bronn Esquire'. The inclusion of this mnemonic suggests that Baird was engaged in teaching mathematics to others and that he was doing so in Scotland. In addition to the reference to Dysart, there is also mention of Scottish money - 'Lib Scotts' - and a date of 1676 is supplied in another calculation.

Dysart is a small town on the River Forth, on the northern shore of its large estuary. Dating from the 13th century, the town established itself in the middle of the 15th century as a trading port, exporting salt and coal to the Low Countries. In the 16th and 17th centuries, trade expanded to the Baltic Countries. It had been towards the end of the 16th century that the first coal pit in the town was sunk - known as Lady Blanche. By the middle of the 17th century when coal began to surpass the salt trade, two new pits followed - Frances and Randolph. Two hundred years later, in 2009, there was no coal trade and no salt trade, and the community was a suburb of Kirkcaldy.