Boxes 1 and 2 contain about 250 letters, dating from 1780 to 1910, with a concentration of letters between 1800 and 1830. The correspondence is mainly to and from Nathaniel Rochester, with some other family members represented. The papers contain a few letters from well-known national figures, including Henry Clay (two letters, along with material concerning Clay's burial in Box 3 folder 10), James Madison (one letter signed), Albert Gallatin (one document signed), and Alexander Hamilton (one document signed). Other important correspondents include Charles Carroll and William Fitzhugh, Rochester's partners in the 1803 Western New York land purchase. There are also retained copies of Rochester's own letters, written in his own hand along with correspondence from several of his sons, including William B. Rochester, who served as a Congressman. Also included are 17 letters Nathaniel Thrift Rochester wrote to his mother and sisters during a tour of Europe in 1832. Letters dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are to and from descendants of Rochester.