The provenance of this collection starts with a fire in the Supreme Court in Victoria in the mid 1890s. In a rush to evacuate the records, a portion went to the British Columbia Provincial Archives and the other portion was removed and held by Justice Sir Henry Crease and his descendants until about 1950. The documents were then acquired by Dr. Joseph Pearce (Dominion Astrophysicist in Victoria) who had it administered by the well-known collector Gerald Wellburn after Pearce became critically ill. Wellburn sold the entire collection to a Vancouver stamp dealer in 1960 where it sat in a downtown vault of a trust company until 1991 when Keenlyside purchased it.

Rare Books and Special Collections acquired the Augustus Pemberton subseries from John Keenlyside on February 26, 2008 and the Inferior Court of Civil Justice subseries from Keenlyside December 30, 2008. Subsequent accruals acquired were also collected by John Keenlyside.