Folio ii bears the large contemporary inscription of Sweetheart Abbey: "Liber s[an]c[t]e Marie de dulci corde." The books and manuscripts belonging to Sweetheart Abbey are thought to have remained in the Abbey until 1609, when they were removed and taken into safekeeping by its last abbot, Gilbert Brown. In the same year John Spottiswoode, Archbishop of Glasgow, raided the lodgings of Gilbert Brown and carried off ecclesiastical objects and vestments as well as the liturgical volumes. The latter were entrusted to John Maxwell of Kirkconnel, whose family had been major benefactors of Sweetheart Abbey and had remained attached to the Catholic faith. When later in the same year Maxwell was ordered to hand the books back to the Archbishop he apparently refused, incurring the displeasure of King James VI & I (see 'Original Letters relating to the ecclesiastical affairs of Scotland', 2 vols. (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1851), vol. 1, pp. 409-411.) John Maxwell of Kirkconnel is thought almost certainly to have owned a Psalter from Sweetheart Abbey, which was sold into private ownership at a sale at Sotheby's auction house in 1950 ((see S.M. Holmes's "Catalogue of Liturgical Books and Fragments in Scotland before 1560", Innes Review 62:2 (2011), p. 147). There are no ownership inscriptions pointing towards John Maxwell in the Breviary, but we have no information whether there are any in the Psalter. Maxwell died after June 29, 1614.

Below the Abbey's inscription is an explanatory inscription and signature of the antiquary Charles Fairfax (1597-1673). Fairfax's signature also appears on folios 1r, 7v, 8r and 200v. Charles Fairfax is known to have bought another manuscript from Sweetheart Abbey - Bodleian Library MS Fairfax 5 (theological treatises) - in Edinburgh in 1652, while his regiment was engaged in Scotland; ownership inscription: "Liber C. Fairfax emptus apud Edinburgh 1652". Thomas Fairfax of Cameron, his nephew, bought the Black Book of Paisley (British Library MS Royal 13 E X) in 1650.

The next owner was John Thoresby, Leeds, whose ownership inscription is found on folio 7v. Further manuscripts and collector's items in the Thoresby collection that were acquired from the Fairfax family point to a connection between the two families. John Thoresby had for some time been an officer in Fairfax's regiment.

His son, the antiquary Ralph Thoresby (1658-1725), inherited the manuscript and added his ownership inscription, dated 1688, on folio ii verso. He mentions the manuscript in his 'Ducatus Leodiensis, or the Topography of the ancient and populous Town and Parish of Leedes and parts adjacent in the West-Riding of the County of York' (London 1715), p. 538, no. 183: "An ancient Breviary, continent. collecta Dominicarum & feriarum totius Anni. This once belonged to the Church of New-Abbey, (or St. Mary's de dulci corde) in Galloway, founded by Dirnorgilla [sic], the Mother of John Baliol King of Scots, and seems to be very particular in the Scotish Saints."

Thoresby's collection was inherited by his eldest son, also Ralph, rector of Stoke-Newington. After his death in 1763 the printed books were bought and sold by Thomas Payne in 1764, while parts of the museum collection, including the manuscripts, were auctioned in 1764 by Whiston Bristow, London; see 'Sale Catalogues of Libraries of Eminent Persons, vol. 10: Antiquaries',' ed. Stuart Piggott, London 1974, pp. 181-200. The third day of the sale was dedicated to "Manuscripts, curiosities, original letters, autographs, &c.", with lot no. 46 described as "An ancient Breviary, & 4 alii" (p. 197 (p. 17 of the catalogue)). This is likely to be the Sweetheart Abbey Breviary. The marginal sale annotations are inconclusive as to whether it sold.

A second edition of the 'Ducatus', published long after Thoresby's death with notes and additions by Thomas Dunham Whitaker, vicar of Whalley and Rector of Heysham in Lancashire (Leeds 1816), mentions the Breviary again on p. 90 of the catalogue section, item 183. It states in its introduction, pp. xiii-xiv: "Some anxiety will naturally be felt to learn the fate of Thoresby's museum, after his decease. It does not apear that he made any testamentary disposition of it. The price of the coins purchased of Lord Fairfax's executors was £185. These, with the immense additions made by himself, were on his decease sent to his son Ralph, in whose possession they remained till his death in 1763. In March 1764 they were sold by auction, for above £450. The printed books, many of which were enriched with Thoresby's MS. notes, were purchased by T. Payne at the Mews Gate and retailed by a marked catalogue. The rest of the collection having lain neglected in a garret, after being refused by several persons on account of 40 unsold copies of the Ducatus, which were attached to it, was at last sold to John Swale, booseller, and Thomas Wilson, schoolmaster, from them Dr. Burton, the antiquary of York, purchased what he chose for £30, but the bulk of the MSS. was bought by Richard Wilson, Esq. Recorder of Leeds, and is now in the possession of Richard Fountayne Wilson, Esq. of Melton."

Although through Thoresby's catalogue the existence of the manuscript was known to researchers (see S.M. Holmes's "Catalogue of Liturgical Books and Fragments in Scotland before 1560", Innes Review 62:2 (2011), p. 147), it remained untraced for several centuries. On 30 November 2015 it was offered at auction at Dorotheum auctioneers, Vienna, lot 1, having been in the possession of a family in Germany for ca. 200 years. The unidentified, very small coat of arms blind-stamped onto the binding may have belonged to a member of this family. The coat of arms is oval, showing three (possibly fruit-bearing) trees on a "Dreiberg" (triple mountain) on a background diagonally divided, the lower half red, and the upper golden. The helmet at the top has a crest of buffalo horns with possibly a type of plant between them.