Wife Sold
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Wife Sold
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17th–?19th-Cent custom for publicly ending an unsatisfactory marriage
This article is about the English custom. For related practices elsewhere, see Wife selling .
^ In his 1844 judgement against a bigamist, at Warwick Assizes, William Henry Maule described the process in detail. [16] "I will tell you what you ought to have done; ... You ought to have instructed your attorney to bring an action against the seducer of your wife for criminal conversation. That would have cost you about a hundred pounds. When you had obtained judgment for (though not necessarily actually recovered) substantial damages against him, you should have instructed your proctor to sue in the Ecclesiastical courts for a divorce a mensa et thoro . That would have cost you two hundred or three hundred pounds more. When you had obtained a divorce a mensa et thoro , you should have appeared by counsel before the House of Lords in order to obtain a private Act of Parliament for a divorce a vinculo matrimonii which would have rendered you free and legally competent to marry the person whom you have taken on yourself to marry with no such sanction. The Bill might possibly have been opposed in all its stages in both Houses of Parliament, and together you would have had to spend about a thousand or twelve hundred pounds. You will probably tell me that you have never had a thousand farthings of your own in the world; but, prisoner, that makes no difference. Sitting here as an English Judge, it is my duty to tell you that this is not a country in which there is one law for the rich and one for the poor. You will be imprisoned for one day. Since you have been in custody since the commencement of the Assizes you are free to leave." [17] This affirmation later contributed to the passing of the 1857 Act.
^ £10.99 in 2018
^ A common cryer was a person whose responsibility it was to make public announcements on behalf of his employer.
^ MSS. 32,084
^ Private sales have not been counted. Thompson, 1991, pp. 409–410 and see pp. 411–412.
^ The "gas pillar" was a large cast iron vase erected in the early 19th century, in Bolton's market square, atop which was a gas lamp . The whole structure was about 30 feet (9.1 m) tall.
^ Thank you, sir, thank you, said the bold auctioneer, Going for ten—is there nobody here Will bid any more? Is this not a bad job? Going! Going! I say—she is gone for ten bob. [62]
^ Griffiths (1995) , p. 163
^ Jump up to: a b Bryce (1901) , p. 820
^ Locke, John (2002). John Locke : selected correspondence . Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 76–77. ISBN 9780198235422 .
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Mansell & Meteyard (2004) , p. 88
^ Jump up to: a b c d Kenny, Courtney (1929), "Wife-Selling in England" , Law Quarterly Review : 494–497 (subscription required)
^ Bryce (1901) , pp. 819–820
^ Bryce (1901) , p. 819
^ Sabine Baring-Gould , Devonshire Characters and Strange Events, John Lane The Bodley Press, London, 1908
^ Bryce (1901) , pp. 816–817
^ Leneman, Leah (1999), "The Scottish Case That Led to Hardwicke's Marriage Act" , Law and History Review , 17 (1): 161–169, doi : 10.2307/744190 , JSTOR 744190 , archived from the original on 25 May 2012 , retrieved 16 December 2009
^ Caine & Sluga (2002) , pp. 12–13
^ Vaessen, Rachel Anne (2006), Humour, Halters and Humiliation: Wife Sale as Theatre and Self-divorce (thesis) (PDF) , ir.lib.sfu.ca , retrieved 18 December 2009
^ Jump up to: a b Stone (1990) , p. 141
^ Sokol & Sokol (2003) , p. 144
^ Finlay (2005) , p. 15
^ FitzGerald, J. D. (2004), "Maule, Sir William Henry (1788–1858)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.), Oxford University Press (subscription or UK public library membership required)
^ Jump up to: a b Wright, John deP. (2004), "Wife Sale" , greenbag.org , Green Bag Archives , retrieved 25 August 2011
^ Hill (1994) , p. 215
^ Jump up to: a b Hill (1994) , pp. 217–218
^ Thompson (1991) , p. 462
^ Pateman (1988) , p. 122
^ Cave, Edward; Nichols, John (April 1832), "The Contrast, by the Author of "Yes and No" " , The Gentleman's Magazine , 102 : 347
^ Cawte, E. C. (1985), "Precise Records of Some Marriage Customs", Folklore , 96 (2): 254, JSTOR 1259650
^ Jacob (2002) , p. 76
^ Thompson (1991) , p. 412
^ Jump up to: a b Thompson (1991) , pp. 408–409
^ Hill (1994) , pp. 215–216
^ Ashton (1899) , pp. 216–217
^ Thompson (1991) , p. 433
^ Thompson (1991) , p. 428
^ Hill (1994) , pp. 216–217
^ Jump up to: a b Hill (1994) , p. 216
^ Thompson (1991) , pp. 440–441
^ Pobjoy (1970) , p. 132
^ Sabine Baring-Gould, Devonshire Folk and Folklore
^ Barb Drummond, Frolicksome Women & Troublesome Wives: Wife Selling in England, 2018
^ Thompson (1991) , pp. 413–414
^ Jump up to: a b c d UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)" . MeasuringWorth . Retrieved 11 June 2022 .
^ Thompson (1991) , p. 415
^ Jump up to: a b Thompson (1991) , p. 451
^ Jump up to: a b c Clark (1997) , pp. 86–87
^ Woodbury (1951) , p. 223
^ Gibson (1993) , p. 51
^ Stone (1990) , pp. 144–145
^ Hill (1994) , p. 218
^ Collins (2007) , p. 65
^ Stone (1990) , pp. 147–148
^ Jump up to: a b Thompson (1991) , p. 409
^ Stone (1990) , p. 145
^ Thompson (1991) , p. 408
^ Thompson (1991) , p. 418
^ Thompson (1991) , pp. 458–459
^ Thompson (1991) , p. 461
^ Barb Drummond, Frolicksome Women & Troublesome Wives: Wife Selling in England, Barb Drummond, 2018, UK
^ Woodbury (1951) , pp. 224–225
^ Godbeer (2002) , p. 131
^ "News" , The Times , infotrac.galegroup.com, no. 3949, p. 3, col. B, 18 July 1797 , retrieved 17 December 2009
^ Hill (1994) , p. 217
^ Stone (1990) , p. 146
^ "Buying and Selling Wives" , The Times , infotrac.galegroup.com, no. 14784, p. 6, col. E, 26 February 1832
^ "News" , The Times , infotrac.galegroup.com, p. 3, col. B, 30 October 1818
^ Ashton (1888) , p. 3
^ "Wife Selling at Smithfield: Authentic Case and a Ballad in which the Heroine is Sold" (PDF) , The New York Times , 2 July 1894 , retrieved 25 August 2011
^ "Police" , The Times , infotrac.galegroup.com, no. 12539, p. 3, col. C, 1 January 1825
^ "Public Sale of a Wife" , The Times , infotrac.galegroup.com, no. 15115, p. 4, col. C, 18 March 1833
^ Gibson (1996) , pp. 95–97
^ Reach (1846) , p. 337
^ Reach (1846) , pp. 335–336
^ Chambers (1864) , p. 487
^ Stone (1990) , pp. 146–147
^ Burn (2009) , p. 1025
^ Jump up to: a b Thompson (1991) , p. 455
^ "A Brutal Practice" , New Zealand Tablet , paperspast.natlib.govt.nz, vol. IX, no. 436, p. 1, 19 August 1881
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Wife selling in England was a way of ending an unsatisfactory marriage that probably began in the late 17th century, when divorce was a practical impossibility for all but the very wealthiest. After parading his wife with a halter around her neck, arm, or waist, a husband would publicly auction her to the highest bidder. Wife selling provides the backdrop for Thomas Hardy 's 1886 novel The Mayor of Casterbridge , in which the central character sells his wife at the beginning of the story, an act that haunts him for the rest of his life, and ultimately destroys him.
Although the custom had no basis in law and frequently resulted in prosecution, particularly from the mid-19th century onwards, the attitude of the authorities was equivocal. At least one early 19th-century magistrate is on record as stating that he did not believe he had the right to prevent wife sales, and there were cases of local Poor Law Commissioners forcing husbands to sell their wives, rather than having to maintain the family in workhouses .
Wife selling persisted in England in some form until the early 20th century; according to the jurist and historian James Bryce , writing in 1901, wife sales were still occasionally taking place during his time. In one of the last reported instances of a wife sale in England, a woman giving evidence in a Leeds police court in 1913 claimed that she had been sold to one of her husband's workmates for £1.
Wife selling in its "ritual form" appears to be an "invented custom" that originated at about the end of the 17th century, [1] although there is an account from 1302 of someone who "granted his wife by deed to another man". [2] The practice was common enough in the 17th century for the English philosopher John Locke to write (apparently as a joke) in a letter to French scientist Nicolas Toinard [ fr ] that "Among other things I have ordered you a beautiful girl to be your wife [...] If you do not like her after you have experimented with her for a while you can sell her and I think at a better price than a man received for his wife last week in London where he sold her for four sous a pound; I think yours will bring 5 or 6s per pound because she is beautiful, young, and very tender and will fetch a good price in her condition." [3] With the rise in popularity of newspapers, reports of the practice become more frequent in the second half of the 18th century. [4] In the words of 20th-century writer Courtney Kenny, the ritual was "a custom rooted sufficiently deeply to show that it was of no recent origin". [5] Writing in 1901 on the subject of wife selling, James Bryce stated that there was "no trace at all in our [English] law of any such right", [6] but he also observed that "everybody has heard of the odd habit of selling a wife, which still occasionally recurs among the humbler classes in England". [7] It was often claimed to be common in rural England, but cleric and folkloricist Sabine Baring-Gould dedicated a whole chapter to it in his book on Devonshire folklore. As a child he witnessed the local poet return from market with a bought wife, and when confronted by the local justice of the peace and vicar (both related to Baring-Gould) he claimed the sale had been carried out correctly and that it was both legal and Christian. [8]
Until the passing of the Marriage Act of 1753 , a formal ceremony of marriage before a clergyman was not a legal requirement in England, and marriages were unregistered. All that was required was for both parties to agree to the union, so long as each had reached the legal age of consent, [9] which was 12 for girls and 14 for boys. [10] Women were completely subordinated to their husbands after marriage, the husband and wife becoming one legal entity, a legal status known as coverture . As the eminent English judge Sir William Blackstone wrote in 1753: "the very being, or legal existence of the woman, is suspended during the marriage, or at least is consolidated and incorporated into that of her husband: under whose wing, protection and cover, she performs everything". Married women could not own property in their own right, and were indeed themselves the property of their husbands. [11] But Blackstone went on to observe that "even the disabilities the wife lies under are, for the most part, intended for her protection and benefit. So great a favourite is the female sex of the laws of England". [2]
Five distinct methods of breaking up a marriage existed in the early modern period of English history. One was to sue in the ecclesiastical courts for separation from bed and board ( a mensa et thoro ), on the grounds of adultery or life-threatening cruelty, but it did not allow a remarriage. [13] From the 1550s, until the Matrimonial Causes Act became law in 1857, divorce in England was only possible, if at all, by the complex and costly procedure of a private Act of Parliament. [14] Although the divorce courts set up in the wake of the 1857 Act made the procedure considerably cheaper, divorce remained prohibitively expensive for the poorer members of society. [15] [a] An alternative was to obtain a "private separation", an agreement negotiated between both spouses, embodied in a deed of separation drawn up by a conveyancer . Desertion or elopement was also possible, whereby the wife was forced out of the family home, or the husband simply set up a new home with his mistress. [13] Finally, the less popular notion of wife selling was an alternative but illegitimate method of ending a marriage. [18] The Laws Respecting Women, As They Regard Their Natural Rights (1777) observed that, for the poor, wife selling was viewed as a "method of dissolving marriage", when "a husband and wife find themselves heartily tired of each other, and agree to part, if the man has a mind to authenticate the intended separation by making it a matter of public notoriety". [17]
Although some 19th-century wives objected, records of 18th-century women resisting their sales are non-existent. With no financial resources, and no skills on which to trade, for many women a sale was the only way out of an unhappy marriage. [19] Indeed, the wife is sometimes reported as having insisted on the sale. A wife sold in Wenlock Market for 2s 6d [b] in 1830 was quite determined that the transaction should go ahead, despite her husband's last-minute misgivings: " 'e [the husband] turned shy, and tried to get out of the business, but Mattie mad' un stick to it. 'Er flipt her apern in 'er gude man's face, and said, 'Let be yer rogue. I wull be sold. I wants a change'." [20]
For the husband, the sale released him from his marital duties, including any financial responsibility for his wife. [19] For the purchaser, who was often the wife's lover, the transaction freed him from the threat of a legal action for criminal conversation , a claim by the husband for restitution of damage to his property, in this case his wife. [21]
The Duke of Chandos , while staying at a small country inn, saw the ostler beating his wife in a most cruel manner; he interfered and literally bought her for half a crown. She was a young and pretty woman; the Duke had her educated; and on the husband's death he married her. On her death-bed, she had her whole household assembled, told them her history, and drew from it a touching moral of reliance on Providence; as from the most wretched situation, she had been suddenly raised to one of the greatest prosperity; she entreated their forgiveness if at any time she had given needless offence, and then dismissed them with gifts; dying almost in the very act. [22]
It is unclear when the ritualised custom of selling a wife by public auction first began, but it seems likely to have been some time towards the end of the 17th century. In November 1692 "John, the son of Nathan Whitehouse, of Tipton, sold his wife to Mr. Bracegirdle", although the manner of the sale is unrecorded. In 1696, Thomas Heath Maultster was fined for "cohabiteing in an unlawful manner with the wife of George ffuller of Chinner ... haueing bought her of her husband at 2d.q. the pound", [23] and ordered by the peculiar court at Thame to perform public penance, but between 1690 and 1750 only eight other cases are recorded in England. [24] In an Oxford case of 1789 wife selling is described as "the vulgar form of Divorce lately adopted", suggesting that even if it was by then established in some parts of the country it was only slowly spreading to others. [25] It persisted in some form until the early 20th century, although by then in "an advanced state of decomposition". [26]
In most reports the sale was announced in advance, perhaps by advertisement in a local newspaper. It usually took the form of an auction, often at a local market, to which the wife would be led by a halter (usually of rope but sometimes of ribbon) [5] around her neck, or arm. [27] Often the purchaser was arranged in advance, and the sale was a form of symbolic separation and remarriage, as in a case from Maidstone , where in January 1815 John Osborne planned to sell his wife at the local market. However, as no market was held that day, the sale took place instead at "the sign of 'The Coal-barge,' in Earl Street", where "in a very regular manner", his wife and child were sold for £1 to a man named William Serjeant. In July the same year a wife was brought to Smithfield market b
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