Three further articles in our occasional series on the UK custom of wife-selling during the 18th and 19th centuries.
“On Tuesday se’nnight a fellow at Clipsham, in Rutland, publicly sold his wife, and a child about 7 months old, to a person living at Clipsham Quarries, for the sum of 10l. 5s.–The money was paid down, and the woman delivered to the purchaser in a halter.–It was the general opinion of the lookers on, that halters for two other persons were wanted, to make the bargain as binding as it should be.”
Stamford Mercury, 9 October 1818.
“Last Tuesday a Staymaker in Little Moorfields sold his wife, to whom he had been married several Years, to a Winedrawer near the said Place, and the same Day was married to a young Woman in the Neighbourhood.”
Stamford Mercury, 29th May, 1746.
“On Saturday morning last, one of the labouring bankers employed near Boston went to the market accompanied by his wife, for the purpose of disposing of her to the best bidder. According to the usual custom, he purchased a new halter, for which he gave 6d., and having tied it round his wife’s neck, he paraded her along the street, the impudent hussey being nothing loth to this public display of her attractions. A purchaser soon appeared, who bid eighteen-pence ! for the woman and the rope, and he and her husband soon came to terms. A bargain was struck, and the shameless parties retired, amid the jeers of the assembled crowd, to a public-house, where the money was spent, and the former owner of the woman drank to the luck of the purchaser, and the jade declared she was quite satisfied with the transfer, for she had ‘got the lad she loved !'”
Stamford Mercury, 26th June 1829.