The manuscript of Jane Austen's 'The Watsons' descended from Jane Austen's sister Cassandra (1773-1845) to their niece, Caroline Mary Craven Austen (1805-1880). Her brother James Edward Austen-Leigh (1798-1874) first published the manuscript in 1870. The manuscript passed to Caroline's nephew, William Austen-Leigh. On 26 April 1915, William presented the first six leaves of the manuscript for a charity sale by Christie, Manson and Woods to raise money for the Red Cross. The remainder of the manuscript remained in the family's possession, descending to the nephew and nieces of William Austen-Leigh, though they placed the manuscript for some time on deposit at the British Museum. The manuscript was then sold at Sotherby's London in 1978 to the British Rail Pension Fund for £38,000. It was auctioned again in 1988 at Sotherby's, reaching a sale price of £90,000 and was bought by Sir Peter Michael, who placed the manuscript on deposit at Queen Mary University of London. On 14 July 2011, the manuscript was once again sold at Sotherby's and was bought by the Bodleian Library for almost £1 million.

The first six leaves of the manuscript were purchased in the Red Cross sale of 1915 by Lady Alice Wernher (later Lady Ludlow). Shortly after 1924, when R.W. Chapman examined the entire manuscript, they were in the possession of the London dealer C.J. Sawyer. The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, bought the first six leaves of the manuscript in 1925 from Sawyer and these six leaves remain at the Morgan Library (shelf mark MS. MA 1034).