Craig's correspondence reveals many personal stories: a debt incurred or enforced; a property bought; a vote acquired; a dispute brought closer to resolution. It shows lawyers at the centre of their community and highlights their connection to municipal development, such as improvements to the water supply, gas lighting or the collection of subscriptions for building a new church. Together, the letters build into a mosaic which brings into focus features of everyday life and gives us a portrait of a community.

Each letter written by Craig, Anderson or Rutherford reflects a moment in time but letters can also reveal continuity in relationships going back years. A reference in 1821 to the winding up of the innkeeper Thomas Sanderson's affairs ‘16 or 18 years ago’, for instance, saw Craig cast his mind back to the relevant papers he had supplied long before ‘to the late Mr Lang at Selkirk who carried on the adjudication of the property’. This was John Lang, formerly sheriff clerk, whose son Andrew had become one of Craig's most regular correspondents.

Craig's lengthy working life, from his apprentice days at the turn of the century, meant that he often had a long association with a correspondent. Archival records testify to his enduring association with individuals such as George Rodger and John Paterson in Selkirk, while his letter books uncover his relationships with family members of some of his correspondents. For instance, he visited Pirn in 1822 and told John Tait WS (of Tait & Bruce) that he had left ‘your father mother & Betty all in fine health & spirits’. He mentioned in passing to John Gibson, when sending him an affidavit from his father Archibald Gibson regarding Sir Walter Scott's affairs, that he had found Archibald in bed following ‘a violent attack of lumbago’.

Tracing the correspondence of anyone of long acquaintance, such as Andrew Lang or Peter Rodger, provides a wealth of detail about their relationship. The almost casual way Craig or his associates might ask Rodger to look into the sheriff clerk's office at Selkirk to find a document required as the basis for a summons in the sheriff court, reflects long acquaintance.