The rough minutes dated from 10 February 1844 to 13 January 1845 consist of a gathering with an inserted leaf and an inserted bifolium. The bound gathering measures 12¾ × 8 inches (32 × 20 cm), and each page is ruled with thirty-seven printed lines, now faded, and includes header space. The gathering was bound with string and contains twenty-eight leaves, or fifty-six pages, fifty-five of which are inscribed. The first page is titled “City council Rough book, commencing Feb 10— 1844.” recorded minutes from February through June 1844. A single loose leaf containing minutes apparently taken during the 10 June 1844 meeting and measuring 10¾ × 7½ inches (27 × 19 cm) was inserted into Richards’s copy of the 10 June minutes between pages [22] and [23]. , Richards, and then alternately recorded minutes until Bullock took over as recorder in October 1844. The minutes from 11 and 13 January 1845 are almost completely contained in a bifolium measuring 12½ × 7⅝ inches (32 × 19 cm) that was inserted after page [54] of the gathering. A faded, oval-shaped embossment appears on the upper left corner of the recto of the first leaf. Each page of the bifolium is ruled with thirty-five printed lines, now faded, and includes header space. All four pages of the bifolium are inscribed in black, blue, and brown ink. The minutes from 13 January 1845 end on page [55], the final inscribed page of the gathering. The first nineteen pages were paginated contemporaneously in ink; pages [20]–[55] were later paginated in graphite. The minutes were inscribed in ink.

Between 1841 and 1845, , , and served successively as city recorder and inscribed minutes into the city’s rough minute books. Sloan appears to have kept minutes on loose leaves—some of which are still extant—and then copied them into the rough minute books. He then inscribed a fair copy of the minutes into the Nauvoo City Council Minute Book. By 1842 the more detailed city council minutes were entered in the rough minute book; proceedings such as council decisions and ordinances were recorded primarily in the official minute book. Richards and Bullock appear to have followed Sloan’s practice, taking their initial minutes on loose paper before transferring their record to the minute book.

These rough minutes were presumably kept with the other rough minutes books among city records. In 1845 the city of Nauvoo was disincorporated. The city council rough minute books were listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office (now CHL) in 1846, when they were packed up with church records that were taken to the Salt Lake Valley. The listing of the books in subsequent inventories of church records in Salt Lake City indicates continuous institutional custody.