IN JULY 2022, a small leather-bound manuscript volume with brass clasps turned up in a London auction house.

The sale catalogue revealed that it bore the bookplate of Charles Stuart, 4th Earl of Traquair, dated 1708.

Fortunately, the Traquair House Charitable Trust was the successful bidder.

And the volume has now returned to the place where it originated.

How and when it strayed from Traquair, and where it has been kept in the intervening years, remains a mystery.

But it is still in perfect condition.

When the manuscript was examined, it was found to not only contain notes made by John Stuart, 1st Earl of Traquair in 1639 in relation to correspondence with the main political figures in Scotland, on reversing the book and opening from the back it was possible to see it had been used as a baptismal register by Fr William Wallace, the chaplain at Traquair between 1820 and 1852.

Catherine Maxwell Stuart, 21st Lady of Traquair, said: “It was such an exciting find and its significance cannot be underestimated.

“As Roman Catholics baptisms were not allowed to be carried out until the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829, but it appears Father Wallace was carrying out baptisms well before this date and was assiduous in his record keeping.”

"Over the last six months Margaret Fox, archivist at Traquair, has transcribed all 286 baptisms, 1820 – 1852, 7 marriages, 1827 – 1846, and 24 confirmations and they can now be viewed on the Traquair website."

Almost all the recorded baptisms give the mother’s maiden name and the child’s place and date of birth, as well as the place and date of baptism and a note of the naming sponsors.

As well as many local families, people travelled from far and wide to be baptised at Traquair.

From Glasgow and Lanark to South of the border from Newcastle to Northumberland.

There is even a record of a family coming from Kirkwall in Orkney.

The records can be searched by birthplace or surname and can be accessed at www.traquair.co.uk/returntotraquair.

“For such a tiny volume the amount of information it contains is amazing and we hope it will fill in some missing gaps for people researching their families”, added Ms Maxwell Stuart.