Wife selling

One of the more disturbing episodes from English literature is the sale of a wife which is described in the 19th century novel The Mayor of Casterbridge, an incident which shocked and intrigued Victorian society. The eponymous hero Michael Henchard, then a humble journeyman hay trusser, is spurred on by alcohol when he auctions his wife and baby daughter to a sailor for five guineas but next day, when sober and full of remorse, it is too late to recover his family.

Thomas Hardy wrote the book in 1886 as part of his Wessex novels set in a fictional rustic England but he is known to have drawn many characters and incidents from life and so there is all probability that the sale of a wife actually happened somewhere in the country at that time and may even have been reported by the local newspapers.

The English custom of wife selling began in the late 17th century when divorce was a practical impossibility for all but the very wealthiest. The town crier or bellman was known to announce such events and after parading his wife with a halter around her neck, arm, or waist, often adorned with ribbons, a husband would publicly auction her to the highest bidder.

Although the procedure had no basis in law and frequently resulted in prosecution, particularly from the mid-19th century onwards, the attitude of the authorities was confusing. At least one magistrate is on record as stating that he did not believe he had the right to prevent wife sales and there were cases of local Poor Law Commissioners forcing husbands to sell their wives, rather than having to maintain the family in workhouses.

The custom of wife selling spread to Wales, Scotland, Australia and then to the United States before dying out in the early 20th century. It was not unknown in Lincolnshire and there is even evidence of a case here in Bourne some sixty or more years before Thomas Hardy’s fictional account but the incident so shocked the local newspaper that the editor refused to print it although he did publish sufficient information to establish that it did actually happen.

The report was filed to the Stamford Mercury by their Bourne correspondent who claimed that the transaction took place on Saturday 29th April 1820 and the following Friday, May 5th, this report appeared in the newspaper: “The dealing parties are represented to be a native of Rippingale and a tradesman of Bourne: the scorn of every decent person will reprove them. As this is a case in which we are not hampered by the consideration due to an advertisement, and have therefore a full option, we shall decline publishing the disgusting particulars; and we shall embrace the opportunity of saying a few words for ourselves respecting some advertisements that have lately stained our columns.

“In whatever comes to us as an announcement that is to be paid for, it is considered to be our duty to allow the utmost latitude to the public that is consistent with our own legal safety; and the use which is made of the privilege by some persons, should not lead others to conclude that we catch at scurrility for profit: we are sensible of the pollution which some matters give to our pages, and would gladly, if we could, avoid it. The situation of the conductor of a newspaper is always arduous and dangerous, and often painful.”

The belief that a wife could be disposed of by means of a public sale was therefore well entrenched in folklore although the last known case in the county occurred in 1852 when the Stamford Mercury reported on Friday 2nd January: “Sale of a wife – a barbarous exhibition of this kind took place in Spalding market on Tuesday last. A notion prevalent amongst the ignorant, that by this means a husband gets rid of his liability to maintain a disagreeable partner.”

No further details were given, indicating yet again the attitude of the newspaper and, indeed, the public at large.

NOTE: The watercolour drawing by Thomas Rowlandson (1812-14) "Selling a wife"
is reproduced courtesy Wikipedia.

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