The papers are primarily concerned with Cabot and Perkins China trade in opium and other items and Boston social life. Also important is a body of material dealing with the activities of the commission on British Spoliation Claims (1796-1800) on which Samuel Cabot served as Executive Secretary. In addition there are descriptions of England and France, Italy and the West Indies in diaries of the family traders. Other important correspondents are: John Singleton Copley, John P. Cushing, Charles Theodore Christian Follen, John Murray Forbes, Robert Bennet Forbes,Christopher Gore, James Madison, James Monroe, Timothy Pickering and Josiah Quincy.
