The volumes help document the activities of two generations of the Bancroft family in England and America and the operations and employees of two early Delaware Valley textile mills. They are one of the smallest collections within Hagley's much more comprehensive holdings on the activities of the Bancroft family.

The first volume includes a small amount of documentation on the early career of John Bancroft (1774-1852) as a lumber merchant, furniture maker, and woodworker in Manchester, England, from 1815 to 1820.

The balance of the first volume is the cash book of the Todmorden (woolen) Mills in Nether Providence Township, from 1833 to 1838. It lists financial transactions with banks, customers, suppliers, laborers, mill workers, and others. In addition to John Sr., other members of the Bancroft family mentioned included John Jr., Joseph, Rebecca, Samuel, Thomas, and William, as well as the partnership of Bainton & Bancroft. Workers at both the Upper Mill and Lower Mill are listed with their earnings. The volume records payments for baking cloth, coal, drayage, digging millrace, flannel, flocks, freight, fuller's earth, glue, kersey, leather, pelts, picker, picks, porterage, roller cloth, sandpaper, shuttles, skewers, wood, wool, wool bags, and yarn drying.

The second volume is a daybook and production record from Joseph Bancroft's cotton mill at Rockford, Delaware, from 1847 to 1849. The volume lists workers' names, numbers, operation numbers, quantities of work done, and remarks.