Perth Amboy evening news., 1904-01-25
wIFR-sELLING IN ENGLAND.
lowed In Obedience to Almost
= Local Law.

Of THE Mayor of C~asterbridge" by the
ca0e at Marlborough street police court
the other day, where it was shown that
ths defendant had got rid of his wife
by selling her for a couple of shillings.
For %precedents for this commercial
form of divorce some journalists have
searched the records of a century ago,
and produced numerous instances OF
wives being led to the cattle market
and there knocked down to the highest
bidder. But it is not necessary to go
back a hundred years for such sales OF
wives, states the London Globe. There
are sufficient modern instances to main
tain the assertion that wife selling Is
still a British custom. There are hum
oreds of people who still believe that
to transfer a wife to another mar for
q cash payment is a legal TRANSACTION,
and a valid dissolution of matrimonial
ties. AS a popular error 1t ranks with
the idea that If husband or wife be abb
sent or unheard of for seven years the
other half is free to marry again. In
Yorkshire generally, and in Shefieldi i'll
particular, this doctrine Of wife-selling
is still so firmly established and fire.
quently practiced that it has little less
than the force of a local law.
Legends of Sheffield grinders who IN
drunken bouts sell their wives for a quart
of ale are we'll known. But nowadays
such transactions are no longer conduct
ed off-hand. They are invested with
fo~,.oIltx. -. xutko1cc fhfo document
which figured in a case at the Sheffield
county court in 1887: Eat the Royal
Oak, Sheffield, I, Abraham Boothroyd,
agree to sell my wife, Clara, to William
Hall for the sum of 5s." In another
case the bargaining was accidentally
overheard In a public house by a
Sheffield journalist. A GOLFERS wife had
transferred her affections to another
man, and the husband was willing to re-
nounce his claim for suitable compen-
sation. So the parties assembled in a
public house to arrange matters. There
was the husband with O friend; his wife
with her father and mother, and the
prospective purchaser with a friend.
The husband demanded G3 for his wife;
she herself said it was too much, and her
new man said he wouldn't give more
than o sovereign. Finally 30s. 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 for
ever, to do as she has a mind, this day,
December II, $685."
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 bigamy.
He admitted that he had married a
woman while his first wife was alive, but
he pleaded that as he had sold her he
was entitled to marry again. She was
a young woman and unruly; wen though
he constantly gave her good hidings she
troubled him, and firing Of her he sold
her to a soldier for IS. Cd. She went
quite willingly and had married her pur-
chaser. Again, at Leeds assizes three
years ago, another bigamist offered the
same defense. On his arrest he stated:
When l married her 1 knew l had a wife
living, but I sold her for 50s." More re-
Gently at Stockport an elderly man told
the magistrates that he thought he was
entitled to marry again IS he had sold
his first wife to q chimney sweep for
ei~ghteenpence.
In each case It will be noted that the
purchase money is mall. 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. Tho
sale, indeed, is the poor mans divorce.
His honesty in this matter is shown by
his retention of the children of the mar
riage, 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 Conisbora, March 20, 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 Ia
the County Palate. But at Alfreton, in
Derbyshire, a collier sold his wife for
fourpence in 1882. In 1873 there was a
remarkable case at Belper; the wife of
an absconding debtor had a halter
placed about her neck and was led into
the market place on Saturday afternoon
and offered for sale by auction as one OF
her husbands assets. But there were
no bidders and no sale. About four
years ago Irthlingborough, near North
ampton, supplied a southern instance,
A shoemaker paraded the street with a
bell calling up on, all persons to know
that he had that afternoon sold and be-
queathed'' his wife to John @ He
proclaimed the names of two compan'
ions as witnesses to the transaction. The
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