Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-01
THE SALE OF WIVES
SELLING OF ONES HELPMATE A
CUSTOM IN ENGLAND.
Practice That Has Almost the Force of
Local Law in Sheffield and
Yorkshire.

READERS OF MI. f1arOyS novels nave peeu
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 defend
ant had got rid Of his wife by selling her
for couple Of shillings For precedents OF
this commercial form of divorce some Jour-
nalists have searched the records of a CEN
fury ago and produced numerous instances
Of wives being led to the cattle market and
there knocked down to the highest bidder.
But 1t Is not necessary to go back anything
like a hundred years for such sales OF
wives. There are sufficient modern In
stances 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
payment is legal transaction and valid
dissolution Of matrimonial ties AS pop
ular error 1t ranks with the idea that II
husband or wife be absent and unheard or
for seven years the other Is free TO marry
again. In Yorkshire generally, and in Shelf
field in particular, this doctrine OF Wlfe-
selling Is still so firmly established and fire.
quently pra cticed that 1t has little less than
the force of local law.
Legends of Sheffield.
Legends of Sheffield grinders who in
drunken bouts sell their wives for quart
of ale are well known. But nowadays sucn
transactions are no longer conducted OIL
hand. They are invested with Formally
as witness this document which figured In
case at the Sheffield county court in 1887:
AT the Royal Oak, Sheffield I, Abraham
Boothroyd, agree to sell my wife. cara, TO
William Hall for the sum of 5s,' In an
other case the bargaining was accidentally
overheard in public house by She1neid
journalist. A GOLFERS wife had transferred
I,a. offa to
band was willing to renOunce his claim for
suitable compensation. So the parties as
sembled in public house to arrange mat
tiers. There was the husband, win
friend; his wife, with her father and moth
err and the prospective purchaser, with
friend. The husband demanded to Tor ms
wife; she herself said it was too much, ana
her new man said he wouldn't give more
than sovereign. Finally 30s was the
sum agreed upon; it was paid over, ana thls
document drawn up. signed ana wiineSseu.
"Mr. Taylor to have my Wl1e' f-ilzdpst h
Smith, free from me forever, to do as she
has a mind, this day, December ii, 1883
Recent Cases.
These are merely two recent cases Wflch
have come to Light. The majority OF such
sales of wives never attain publicity. Al
Leeds assizes in 1898 Benjamin Gibbons
was tried for bgamy. He admitted that ne
had married a woman while his first wife
was alive. Dul ne picducu tIdt az iiO h''N
sold her he was entitled to marry again.
She was a young woman and unruiy; even
though he constantly gave her good hldlnss
she troubled him, and, firing Of her, ne
sold her to a soldier for IS. I'd 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 SOLD
her for 50s.'
More recently at Stockport an elderly
man told the magistrates that he thought
he was entitled to marry again, as he had
sold his first wife to chimney sweep Tor
1sd
In each case it will be noted that the pur-
chase money is small. This is not due to
low valuation of the woman, buta nominal
sum is agreed upon to make the bargain an
actual one. The legal doctrine of value
received is so far understood by the vul-
gar 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 % 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."
In Derbyshire.
Though Lancashire Is so kin to Yorkshire
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 remarkable case at
Belper the wife of an abscondng 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 Irthlingboro', near Northampton,
supplied a soNkhern instance. shoemaker
paraded the Streets with a bell calling upon
all persons to know that he had that after
noon sold and bequeathed' his wife to
John -. He proclaimed the names of
two companions as witnesses to the trans
action. The purchase money was Is. Mr..
Barring Gould cities similar sales in the
west country, and to go back more than
thirty years would mean the extension of
this subject to intolerable length, for a CEN
fury ago wife selling was almost common.
That it is practiced frequently asst is
will come as a surprise to most readers.
In addition to these northern instances
many a wife is sold today in the east end
of London, but of all such cases over the
country only a few are revealed to public