The 16 volumes, created between 1909 - 1963 and held in the electronic Digital Repository of Ireland are individual contracts, legal agreements between the firm John Jameson & Son and individual publicans who bought their whiskey in bulk directly from the Distillery to bottle on their own premises in Ireland in the first half of the 20th century.

Traditionally, Jameson had two routes to market, one was to bottle inhouse and sell directly to the consumer, and the second was to sell by the barrel to publicans. With the latter, labels were supplied to the individual publicans by the Bow Steet Distillery, and publicans would bottle the whiskey in-house and add their name to the label. In order to ensure that the whiskey was not interfered with in any way, publicans were required to sign an annual legal agreement which had to be witnessed, and often signed, by a customer on the premises.

The records contain the name and address of every publican who purchased Jameson in bulk at that time, and also the name and occupation of witnesses, thus providing a unique insight into the role of the Irish pub as a community meeting place at that time. In 1966 the firm John Jameson & Son combined with two others, John Power & Son and the Cork Distilleries Company, to form a new entity, Irish Distillers Limited. In 1988 that firm became part of the Pernod Ricard group.