The papers, for the most part, were presented in 1958 by Mrs Shorland, great-great-niece of Sir John, and consist of notes, news cuttings and Lady Herschel's housekeeping accounts for 1832 to 1838 and for 1852 to 1886. Maggs Bros. also presented some notes and correspondence in 1958 concerning the family's Molyneux chronometer together with a description of Sir John's barometer, 1832 to 1833.

Administrative / biographical background
Sir John was the only child of the astronomer William Herschel and his wife Mary Pitt Herschel. He was Senior Wrangler at Cambridge and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1813 for his contributions to chemistry and mathematics. Through assisting his father he came to adopt astronomy as his career and went to live at the Cape of Good Hope from 1833 to 1838, making a star survey of the southern sky. The results of this work were published in 1847. On his return to England, Herschel became an active member of several scientific societies. He was employed as Master of the Mint from 1850 to 1855 and wrote many articles for the Encyclopaedia Britannica and other general works of reference. There is a translation of Gunther Buthman's 'The shadow of the telescope. A biography of John Herschel' by B.E. Pagel (New York, 1970).