Had she married with her parents’ consent, a dowry of £7000 should have been paid on Georgina's marriage in 1860. But she and Harry had not received a penny: her father had disinherited her and had left her nothing in his will when he died in 1867. Her mother had given Georgina £100 a year thereafter, and had been horrified when, in 1884, Georgina had threatened to take steps to dispute the will on the grounds that her father had been insane when the document was drawn up and signed, just over two years before his death. Louisa had persuaded her not to do so, promising to ensure that Georgina was provided for in her own will. But her power to do so was severely compromised by the fact that in 1863 she and her husband, with their eldest son Dal and their trustees, had entered into an agreement under which Dal would receive £50,222 18s after his mother's death, for his own use ‘absolutely and beneficially’. In fact, it appears, a large portion of this money had been advanced to Dal long before his mother died. Georgina later claimed that her brother had squandered about £70,000 ‘in riotous living, gambling, mad extravagance and bad investments’.

A letter sent by Dal Treherne to his sister Emily in 1893 suggests that Emily and her husband Ashley George (Bill) Williams had received only £2000 when they married in 1871, and that £5000, the remainder of her dowry, was still owing. When Emily and Bill threatened to take Dal to court, he replied: ‘I cannot believe that a brother or sister of mine would lend themselves to a step which might prove my ruin!! I have 3 children and £20,000 (less £2,000 still remaining of unpaid debts) to leave them as their fortunes!!!’ Clearly, there was one rule for Dal, and a different one for the rest of the family.

It is also clear that Dal and Emily had been advised that the agreement of 1863 was illegal and had no force in law. They were both terrified that Georgina would find out and take action against them.