Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-02-13
THE SALE OF WIVES
AN ANCIENT CUSTOM THAT STILL
SURVIVES IN ENGLAND.

This BarbarOus Practice Has Almost
the Force of Local Law In YORK
shire and shefHeId-It Is. In Fact
the Poor Mans Method OF Divorce.
The custom of selling wives still pre-
walls in some parts of England.
For presidents OF this commercial
form of divorce some journalists have
searched the records of century ago
and produced numerous instances or
wives being led to the cattle market
and there knocked down to the highest
bidder But it is not necessary to go
back anything like a hundred years
for such sales of wives. There are
sufficient modern instances TO maintain
the assertion that wife selling is still
British custom. There are hundreds of
people who still believe that to transfer
a wife to another man for cash pay
ment is legal transaction and valid
dissolution of the matrimonial ties As
popular error il ranks with the idea
that if husband and wife be absent
and unheard of for seven years the
other is free to marry again. In York
shire generally, and in Sheffield in par
ticular, this doctrine of wife selling is
still so firmly established and frequent
ly practiced that it has little less than
the force of u local law.
Legends of Sheffield grinders who in
quart of ale are well known. But now
adays such transactions are no longer
conducted offhand. They are invested
with Formally, as witness this docu-
ment which figured in a case at the
Sheffield county court in 1887: AT the
Royal Oak, Sheffield, l, Abraham
Boothroyd, agree to sell my wife, Clara,
| to William Hall for the sum of D
shillings" In another case the bar
gaining was accidentally overheard in
a public house by a Sheffield journalist.
4 Golfers wife had transferred her af-
| fections to another man, and the nus
| band was willing to renounce his claim
| for suitable compensation. So the par
ties assembled in public house to ar
| range matters. There were the huS-
band, with friend; his wife, with her
| father and mother, and the prospective
| purchaser, with friend. The husband
demanded f3 for his wife. She herself
said it was too much, and her new man
said he wouldn't give more than SOW
ereign. Finally so shillings was the
sum agreed upon. 1t was paid over
and this document drawn up, signed
and witnessed: "Mr. Taylor to have my
wife, Elizabeth Smith, free from me
| forever. to do as she has q mind, this
day, Dec. II. 1S93.'
These are merely two recent cases
which have come to light. The major
| ity of such sales of wives never attain
publicity. At Leeds assiZes in 1895
Benjamin Gibbons was tried for big
amy. He admitted that he had mar
| ried woman while his first wife was
alive, but he pleaded that as he had
sold her he was entitled to marry again.
She was young woman and unruly.
Even though he constantly gave her
good hidings she troubled him, and,
firing of her, he sold her to soldier
for 3s I'd. She went quite willingly
and had married her purchaser.
Again, at Leeds assizes in 1900, an
other bigamist offered the same de-
Tense On his arrest he stated, when
/ married her 1 knew l had a wife liv-
ing, but sold her for 90 shillings."
More recently at Stockport an elder
~ man told the magistrates that be
thought he was entitled to marry again,
as he had sold his first wife to a chin
ney sweep for IS pence.
In. each case it will be noted the pur-
chase money is small. This is not due
to a low valuation of the woman. but a
nominal sum is agreed upon to make
the bargain an actual one. The legal
doctrine of value received" is so far
understood by the vulgar mind. The
sale, indeed. is the poor mans divorce
His honesty in this matter is shown
by his retention of the children of the
marriage and his maintenance of them
In a case at Doncaster in 1896 the pur-
chaser, instead of paying cash, agreed
TO take over the vendors four children
with the wife. This was the document
which figured later in the police court
New Conisboro, March, 2S, 1861
Enoch Childs, is quite willing to take
your wife and children as mine-that
is. Your wife. Ellen Tart, and Sarah
John, Henry and Eliza. Signed, Ellen
Tart, Enoch Childs."
Though Lancashire is so kin to York
shire. no sales of wives are known in
the County Palatine. But at Alferton
in Derbyshire, collier sold his wife
for fourpence in 1882. In 1873 there
was a remarkable case at Belper The
wife of an absconding debtor had g
halter placed about her neck and was
led into the market place on Saturday
afternoon and offered for sale by auc
ton as one of her husbands assets
But there were no bidders and no sale