The library of Honresfield House was assembled by William Law in the house that he shared with his brother Alfred. William predeceased Alfred, who then inherited Honresfield and its library. On Alfred’s death in 1913 the house and library were left to his nephew, the politician Sir Alfred Law. Sir Alfred died in 1939, after which access to the library was effectively lost. It was to be offered for sale by Sotheby’s in 2021.

A consortium consisting of partners from The National Library of Scotland, Abbotsford House, The National Trust for Scotland, Jane Austen's House, the Bodleian, the British Library, the Brontë Parsonage Museum, and the Brotherton Library came together with the Friends of the National Libraries to raise the funds to purchase the collection. The Burns, Scott, and Byron material was allocated to the Scottish partners and distributed among them in 2022.

In recognition of the particular generosity of Sir Leonard Blavatnik in supporting the acquisition of the Honresfield library, it was decided that the distributed collection would be known as the Blavatnik Honresfield Library.