Aberdeen Shipmaster Society papers This collection is largely concerned with the Society’s administration and its financial accounts and includes sederunt books, abstracts of accounts, cash books, and various printed reports and official papers and statistics. The Society also owned fishing rights on the River Don and in the coastal waters around Aberdeen, and the records created in respect of these interests are of considerable value regarding the historic development of the fishing industry in Aberdeen, and the conflicting interests which this created between local land owners and the Society. They include an inventory of 74 writs, compiled in 1776, concerning the ownership of half-nets on the Don from 1541 - 1775, and writs, resignations and dispositions concerning half-nets salmon fishing on the Don and coastal salmon fishing rights, 1630 - 1783. 1630-1965