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Personal papers and especially papers relating to the public offices of members of the Wynn family of Gwydir, Caernarfonshire. These include letters and orders from the Privy Council and from Thomas Gerard, Ralph Eure, William, earl of Northampton, etc., as Lords President of the Council of Wales and the Marches to Sir John Wynn, 1st baronet, relating to the government of Caernarfonshire and the mustering of soldiers for various wars. The papers from the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary chiefly relate to preparations for wars in Scotland and France, whilst the papers from the reign of Elizabeth I chiefly relate to preparations for wars in Ireland and against Spain. The archive also includes papers relating to the Civil war and to elections in Caernarfonshire. The archive is an important source for local administration in late sixteeenth and seventeenth century Wales and for the relationship between local and central government. Most of the papers relating to the Gwydir estate for this period have not survived.

A photostat copy of a document belonging to the Birmingham Reference Library, being a petition, [c. 1620]-1636, by one John Feild of Kings Norton, Worcestershire to the Rt Hon. William Compton, Earl of Northampton (d. 1630) and President of the Council in the Marches of Wales, requesting the Council to compel certain tenants of the manor of Kings Norton to fulfil their promise to bear a part of the expenses of Feild's action, while holding the office of bailiff of the manor, against one Thomas Rea in a dispute concerning the goods of two women who had been executed for witchcraft.