The manuscript, gifted to the University in 1700, lay largely unnoticed until 1924 when it was briefly studied when the Scottish Text Society were about to publish an edition of Fergusson's Proverbs. However, Professor Anderson has spent considerably more time & effort in deciphering & studying the writings together with other works in the original bequest, thus establishing that the collection was made by James Carmichaell who was a graduate of St Andrew's & minister of Haddington from1570 until his death in 1628. He was also appointed to enquire officialy into the Bothwell witch case in North Berwick.