These accounts record payments to numerous people which illuminate, to some extent, life on the plantations at Peru and Green Vale. Entries include large sums paid as annuities to James Scarlett senior, and a smaller annuity paid to Charles Scarlett; fees and salaries paid to bookkeepers and other administrators; fees to craftsmen such as chimney builders, carpenters and coopers; christening and burial fees; purchases of gunpowder and steers; tax payments; and sums paid for provisions (such as boxes of fish) and bills of lading.

They also contain glimpses of the enslaved people on the estates. Selected relevant entries:

17 April 1798 £3.0.1 1/2 in cash for "Work-house fees on Dido a Negroe Woman belonging to Peru Estate".

July 1799 workhouse fees were paid for "Juliet a Negroe Woman belonging to Greenvale Estate"

11 September 1799 workhouse fees for "a Negroe named Fortune G Vale".

14 September 1799 cash for "Homer a Negro going to St Anns"

1800 £5 paid "Lieut. Jas. Hall for taking up and bringing in a Negroe Woman from the Woods who had joined the Rebels recommended by the Vestry"

1800/1801 "£5 paid to Fanny for her care and attention of the sick Negroes on Peru"

[1801] £1.2.11 for "Work-house fees of a Negro at St James's"