Manuscript volume containing texts on religious themes by Richard Houison, Minister at Musselburgh

Provenance note in ink on f. 4v: "Apud Calder Comitis die 2^do Januarii 1709/10. In hoc Manuscripto Continentur Dissertationes admodum Concinnae de Variis Quaestionibus in Theologia perquam Utilibus scriptis a quondam Rev^do Do^no Riccardo Huison V. D. M. in Ecclesia Musselburgensis Praelo [...]ignis. J. Lookup". A later handwritten note with a translation in English is enclosed: "At Earl's Calder [=Mid Calder?]. 2 January 1709/10. In this manuscript, there are contained very elegant dissertations, about various very useful questions in theology, written by the late Revd. Dr. Richard Huison, minister of the Word of God in the Church of Musselburgh. John Lookup." The note also says: "Richard Houison was minister at Musselburgh in 1695. John Lookup was minister at Mid Calder in 1711." The note is signed "JCL".

The folios at the beginning (ff. 1-4) and at the end (ff. 141-179) have, for the most part, been used by various members of the Frazer (or Fraser) family at "Livingston" and elsewhere, from about 1758 to later in the century. Mostly rough accounts kept by John Frazer for "wright work", but mention is made of "John Frazer Bookbinder in Edin" (f. 138) and "William Frazer / Bookbinder / Edinburgh" (f. 175), and there is also "A Recite for a Mahugeny Coller" [A receipt or recipe for making a Mahogany colored dye or stain]. Various members have also used some of the blank margins in the main Houison text to practice their signatures.

Provenance history deduced by the bookseller: "[the volume was] used by Richard Houison; at his death, passed to his daughter and her husband, John Lookup; at Lookup’s death, in West Calder, West Lothian, the notebook was acquired by the local Frazer family (of Livingston, West Lothian), who used the remaining blank leaves (and blank spaces) as a rough account book and somewhere to practice writing. The Frazers (or Frasers) who feature are William, Robert, and John."