The prize ledger illustrates the process of paying and claiming prize money from captured ships. It is split into three sections: firstly an index recording the start and completion of claims for shares of prize money, arranged by the name of the capturing ship alphabetically; secondly, accounts of claims payable by different agents; and thirdly, copies of 511 letters relating to paying and claiming prize money and wages written by Coutts Trotter between 24 February 1786 and 12 December 1792.

The accounts cover 26 pages and are arranged by agent. They record: the agent’s address; figures in columns headed 'Sea', 'Pow:' and 'Leg'; the name of the ship that had captured the prize; the name of the ship captured as a prize; the seamen’s name and charge; the date received; and the sums received and paid to other persons. The accounts are preceded by an index.

The letters contained in the section of the ledger are numbered with the date and recipient in the margin.

Administrative / biographical background
Sir Coutts Trotter, 1st Baronet (1767–1837) was the brother and partner of Alexander Trotter (1755–1842), paymaster of the Royal Navy from 1786. Alexander was appointed by Henry Dundas, treasurer of the Navy, and was involved in Dundas' (by then Lord Melville and First Lord of the Admiralty) impeachment in 1805: Alexander had laid out official disbursements allocated to Dundas in his role as treasurer into private investments, when the law stipulated that they should have been kept at the Bank of England. Coutts Trotter later joined Thomas Coutts as a principal partner in Coutts Bank from 1793. The Troubridge collection also contains correspondence with Coutts Trotter (TRO/107/1).