For sale – One Wife

In the course of conducting my research over many years I have come across some most extraordinary items of news.  But what we might find odd and strange today was in a way perfectly normal a couple of hundred years ago.  One such example was the rather horrific although seemingly regular practice of attempting to sell one’s wife!  So if the Internet was running in Georgian times it could quite be possible to browse eBay and find the occasional wife on sale! The very thought of it today sounds so peculiar it could almost be the stuff of comedy but years ago it wasn’t quite so extraordinary as The Sheffield Independent – Saturday 12 June 1886 reports as it looks back at this strange practice.

“The selling of wives. Wife-selling was not uncommon practice with our grandfathers.  In 1802, a man in Chapel-en-le-Frith sold his wife, child, and some furniture for 11 shillings: the same year at Hereford Butcher sold his wife by auction for 24 shillings and a bowl of punch.  In 1806, a man exposed his wife for sale in the market at Hull, with a halter round her neck, and she was purchased for 20 guineas.  At Knaresborough, in the following year, a man disposed of his wife in a similar manner for six months a quid of tobacco. In Sheffield, a little while before, a fellow sold his wife in the marketplace.  “What do you ask?”  Said a bystander.  “They guinea,” replied the husband.  “Done!”  Cried the other, and immediately led away his bargain”.