The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-16
WIVES ARE SOLD
DOCTRINE ALMOST LOCAL LAW
 IN ENGLISH COUNTIES.
Several Cases Have Recently Figured In Courts, But Deal is Usually Kept a Secret.
London Globe.

London Globe
 Readers of Mir. Hardy's novels have been reminded of the opening chapters of "The Mayor of Casterbridge.' by the case at Marlborough. Street Police Court the other day. where 1t was shown that the 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 pro- duced numerous instances of wives being ledto the cattle market and there knocked down to tre highest bidder. But 1t 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-seIling is still British custom. There are hun dreds of people who still believe that to transfer wife to another man for a cash payment is a legal transaction, and a valid dissolution of matrimonial ties As popular error it ranks with the idea that If husband or wife be absent or un- heard of for seven years the other is free to marry again. Tn Yorkshire generally, and in Sheffield in particular, this doc Urine of wife-selling is still so firmly esq tablished and frequently 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 well known. But nowadays such transactions are no longer conduct ed offhand. They are invested with for mality, as witness this document which figured in a case at the Sheffield County Court in 1887: 'tAt the Royal Oak. Shelf field, I, Abraham. Boothroyd. agree to sell my wife. Clara, to William Hall for the sum of 5s." In another case the bar gaining was accidentally overheard in a public house by a Sheffield journalist. A collier's wife had transferred her affec- tions to another man, and the husband was willing to renounce his claim for suit able compensation. So the parties assem- bled in a public house to arrange matters. There was the husband with a friend; his wife with her father and mother, and the prospective purchaser with a friend. The husband demanded 3 pounds for his wife; she herself said it was too much, and her new man said he wouldn't give more than sovereign. Finally the sum agreed up- on was paid over. and this document drawn up, signed. and witnessed: ''Mr. Taylor to have my wife. -Izabeth Smith, free from me forever. to do as she has a mind, this day, Dec. Il. 1S93''
 1 These are merely two recent cases which | have come to light. The majority of such
 sales of wives never attain publicity. Al
 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 Young woman and un'
 ruly; even though he constantly gave hel
 goou moingS She troubled him, and tirinl
 oi her' he(sold her to soldier for 3s Sd
 sne went quite willingly, and had mar
 rted her purchaser. Again. at Leeds AS
 sizes. three years ago, another bigamis
 offered the same defense. On his arres
 he stated: When I married her I kpey
 I had wife living. but sold her for 60s.'
 More recently, at Stockport. an elderll