Selling wives, a means of divorce in England

Between the late eighteenth century and the middle of the nineteenth century, England lived on the impact of a unique phenomenon known as the selling of wives. During that period, it was natural to open the newspaper to find in it an advertisement submitted by someone to sell his wife at a public auction in a market.

According to many historical sources, between 1780 and 1850, England witnessed more than 300 auctions of wives.

Prior to 1857, England lacked laws governing the terms of divorce. In order to annul the marriage, the English had to obtain the approval of Parliament and the support of the Church.

Because the matter had to be brought before these higher authorities, the costs of terminating the marriage were exorbitant, often settling at 3000 pounds.

In the face of rising costs, only the wealthy were able to end their marriages at will, and in return, members of other classes resorted to alternative solutions in order to put an end to their miserable married life.

No to consensual divorce

As for the English law, it rejected the idea of ​​the spouses leaving and abandoning each other by mutual consent without going through Parliament, as the husband could monitor all the movements of his wife wherever she went if she left the house, and was able to charge and sue her for infidelity.

Also, a man could not marry a second woman before ending his marriage to the first because of the English law's prohibition of polygamy.

Unable to afford the expenses of ending the marriage, married people from the middle and poor classes resorted to putting an end to their miserable family life by auctioning off.

This phenomenon has spread widely in the poor English regions, where the woman was classified among the list of personal property of the man, and the latter was able to sell it whenever he wanted, just like the purposes of the house.

According to what was reported about this phenomenon, the English man used to take his wife to the public market or the market designated for selling animals before registering her in the sales list so that a rope would be placed around her neck, waist or wrist.

Wife on the table for sale

Then the wife climbs on top of the auction box or table to start the selling process.

When finished, the husband and wife and the highest bidder head to the bar to celebrate the bargain.

As for the sale of wives, it was an illegal practice condoned by the English authorities, as the sale was only a symbolic divorce to end marital problems.

In addition, most cases of this type of sales were obtained with the consent of the wife, where the latter agrees with her husband, and the sale process is organized to a specific person for a symbolic price that may sometimes not exceed one pound.

Meanwhile, in the year 1733, Birmingham witnessed one of the first wife-sales in which a man named Samuel Whitehouse sold his wife Mary Whitehouse in the market to a man named Thomas Griffiths for one pound.

In 1832, an Englishman named Joseph Thompson sold his wife for less than a pound.

During the sale, the latter presented the advantages and disadvantages of his wife, describing her as a snake, but he praised her features such as her ability to milk cows, cook and sing. The sale of wives declined gradually, starting in 1857, following the English Parliament Act, which facilitated divorce procedures and made them accessible to everyone, thus ending this strange custom at the beginning of the twentieth century.