"wife for sale"

[LeedsHipPriest69]

I came across the idea of men selling their wives on Twitter, where a local historian I follow mentioned the story of a man who sold his wife, and whilst an entertaining read I thought it a one off anecdote. However whilst researching a distant ancestor I  kept coming across the same name marrying a number of women, and the more I looked for supporting evidence the more I came across multiple examples where men, and women for that matter, appeared to potentially, have had numerous wives/husbands.

Normally when I have come across an ancestor with multiple marriages, I have been able to evidence that previous husbands/wives have in fact died, however, in these more recent searches, the wife/husband seems to be very much alive, so I googled "divorce in the 18th century" to see if legal, and whilst possible it was beyond the pale for 99.9% of the populace, but that selling ones wife was in actual fact more common that I had thought (see )https://www.history.com/news/england-divorce-18th-century-wife-auction

Can anyone advise what the "legal" next step was beyond the sale/purchase, for example did the new husband marry his new wife in church, which would explain the apparent second and third marriages etc ?

This ones got me baffled, as well as entertained

[Pennines]

There is information about this subject here;

https://historyofwomen.org/wifeselling.html

I came across this site some time ago -- I don't know the answer to your question, but it's a really interesting site about women's emancipation.

Check the menu down the side - 'Beating a wife' is interesting also.

[youngtug]

read "The Mayor of Casterbridge", 

[goldie61]

read "The Mayor of Casterbridge",

Author Thomas Hardy. Written 1886.
Also been  made into a movie, and a TV series.

[Rena]

I've not done any specific research on this matter but prior to my starting genealogy I had heard that husbands could take their wives back to their fathers if a child had not been born in the first year !!

Additionally when I did start my research I was surfing for "feeing markets" (where men went to look for work and employers' agents looked for workers) when I happened across an article about an ancient market where a dissatisfied husband advertised his wife for sale.  Unfortunately I cannot now recall which town market but feel that it wasn't in the north of GB.

[majm]

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/257038991
Evening Courier, Fremantle Western Australia 27 Jan 1903 page 4 reporting on an advertisement from early 1800s that was first published in Virginia USA.

‘A wife for Sale.   To be sold. – For five shillings, my wife, Jane Heeland.  She is stoutly built, stands firm, and is sound, mind and limb.   
She can sow and reap, hold a plough and drive a team, and would answer any stout, able man that could hold a tight rein, for she is hardmouthed and headstrong; but if properly managed would either lead or drive as tame as a rabbit.
Her husband parts with her because she is too much for him.  Inquire of the printer.   
N.B.  – All her clothes will be given with her.


https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71188579  Australian Town & Country  2 Sept 1893 page 39

A Wife for Sale
The first recorded sale after the accession of George III occurred in the month of March 1766.  In this case a carpenter of Southwark, named Higginson, went into an alehouse for his morning draught;  there he met a fellow carpenter, and the conversation turned on wives.  The carpenter, whose name history has not recorded, lamented that he had no wife.  Higginson on the other hand lamented that he had, and expressed regret that there was no way except murder by which he could rid himself of her.  The carpenter assured Higginson that there was a way – the old English custom had made it quite lawful for a husband to sell his own rib.
Noone would be such a fool as to buy mine, sighed Higginson.
I would do so, the other promptly replied and think I had made a good bargain too.
Done  shouted the delighted husband, who clenched the bargain on the spot.  Mrs Higginson was duly claimed by her new lord and went willingly enough and lived with him as his wife.
In a few days, however, Higginson grew tired of his mateless home or suspected that he had not done right and went to the other carpenters house, demanding his wife back.  Mrs Higginson strenuously refused to leave her new lord.
A Sale is a sale, said she, and not a joke.
Higginson went again and again, but to no purpose and after a week or two ceased calling.  His wife had just begun to conclude that he had at last quietly resigned his claim, when she was cited to appear before a coroners jury and identify her husband, who had settled the question by hanging himself.  The price paid for the woman is not recorded.


JM. 

[Redroger]

All cases documented seem to be from the 19th century, I suggest it was probably due to poverty and the coming of the industrial revolution.

[youngtug]

It would seem to originate in the late 17th century. Divorce  was only possible by an act of parliament until 1857 and even then it would have been very costly.

[Redroger]

For the socalled "top of society" like the Prince of Wales etc only. Even a private Parliamentary bill would have been prohibitive.