These papers relate in the first instance to a manor called Lavington Episcopi in Wiltshire (also known as Lavington Epi and Bishop's Lavington and now known as West Lavington) which came into the Bertie family (Earls of Abingdon) after being inherited by Elianora, Countess of Abingdon, wife of James the 1st earl, from her father Sir Henry Lee. The manor was leased from the Bishops of Salisbury and was held in trust by James for Elianora with the revenues raised from this property (among others) intended for the benefit of their younger children. The early eighteenth-century deeds reflect this, as the manor was mortgaged by Montagu, 2nd earl, and his brother James Bertie in order to meet the obligation of providing an inheritance for James Bertie when he reached his majority.

The properties in Withington and Fallowfield in Manchester, formerly owned by the Egerton family of Tatton, Cheshire, came into the Bertie family when in 1879 Anne Vernon Harcourt, who was related by marriage to the Berties, died. She had provided substantial mortgages to the properties' owners N.G. Pennington and T.E. Bridgen and bequeathed those mortgages to Lady Lavinia Louisa Bickersteth, daughter of Montagu, 6th Earl of Abingdon and his wife Elizabeth Vernon Harcourt. Montagu Arthur, the 7th earl, helped to manage them along with his brother the Reverend Alberic Edward Bertie until formally handing them into Lavinia's control in 1920.