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Wife selling...

...in England was a way of ending an unsatisfactory marriage by mutual agreement.

After parading his wife with a halter around her neck, arm, or waist, a husband would publicly auction her to the highest bidder.

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by Anonymousreply 29April 23, 2022 10:13 PM

Why i am not surprised? Sounds so British

by Anonymousreply 1February 23, 2021 9:03 PM

This is the plot of Hardy's "Mayor of Casterbridge," which was adapted by the BBC in the 1970s in a miniseries starring Alan Bates. I watched it when I was a kid. Bates was fantastic as a successful man whose life is destroyed when it comes out that he sold his wife (while very drunk) as a young man.

by Anonymousreply 2February 23, 2021 9:06 PM

It's also in the Sharpe series, when Mrs. Sharpe starts slutting around, trying to trade up from Sharpe. Bad move, Jane.

by Anonymousreply 3February 23, 2021 9:12 PM

"Mutual agreement". Sure, Jan.

by Anonymousreply 4February 23, 2021 9:34 PM

Divorce then was expensive and difficult to obtain in GB, and since a wife was the unique and exclusive property of her husband....

by Anonymousreply 5February 23, 2021 9:43 PM

I hated ‘Mayor of Casterbridge’.

by Anonymousreply 6February 23, 2021 9:59 PM

I think this was done only by the "lower orders". It was traditional rather than legal, and would't be done to any woman whose family could afford a lawyer, or enough influence to make the husband suffer for it.

It turned up in a well-researched historical novel, a sailor buys a wife "All nice and legal like, halter put in me hand", and after a bit the wife runs off and goes back to the husband who sold her. It turns out that they made a living off of selling her when they needed money.

by Anonymousreply 7February 24, 2021 3:11 AM

I threw in the saddle and two bales of hay. Still no takers!

by Anonymousreply 8February 24, 2021 3:26 AM

How much for my wife. Very used and expensive, but still willing to put out. Loves tennis and gardening. I just need to trade her in for a newer model.

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by Anonymousreply 9February 24, 2021 12:28 PM

That's how we got Hazel

by Anonymousreply 10February 24, 2021 2:35 PM

Until the Matrimonial Causes act of 1857, getting divorced in the UK was only for the wealthy. It was an incredibly difficult and expensive process that also required a certain amount of clout to make happen, as a literal act of Parliament needed to be passed. After that, you could divorce through the courts, but only men could divorce solely for infidelity. A wife wanting to divorce her husband had to prove infidelity AND cruelty or desertion. The law stayed that way until 1923, when women could sue for divorce solely because of adultery.

Wife selling was a lower-class solution to a common problem. Often, the man 'buying' the wife was already the wife's lover, and the husband 'selling' her was essentially announcing to everyone that he approved the split and was giving care of his wife to the man she wanted to be with. The old-fashioned equivalent of no-fault divorce. (which the UK still doesn't have, BTW).

by Anonymousreply 11February 24, 2021 8:38 PM
by Anonymousreply 12April 8, 2021 7:02 AM

I liked 'The Mayor Of Casterbridge".

by Anonymousreply 13April 8, 2021 7:05 AM

The slutty bottom in me would love to be play the role of the sold wife...

by Anonymousreply 14April 8, 2021 7:09 AM

Indeed. I was just about to propose tops sell their bottoms. A leather harness would be called for.

by Anonymousreply 15April 8, 2021 7:21 AM

This is what comes of 'rent to own'.

by Anonymousreply 16April 8, 2021 7:22 AM

Who would buy a used wife?

by Anonymousreply 17April 8, 2021 8:00 AM

Marriages were unregistered at the time, and all you had to do be married was consent, as long as you were at least 12 years old (girls) or 14 years old (for boys). Divorce wasn't possible until 1857, apparently; prior to that, you had to get Parliament to agree to your divorce by passing a specific law for you and you alone.

It was never legal to sell wives, but there are examples of men who were forced by the law to sell their wives because they were in debt.

by Anonymousreply 18April 8, 2021 8:05 AM

What's love got to do with it?

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by Anonymousreply 19April 8, 2021 9:56 AM

If the wife were already well known as a scold, a gossip, or a shrew, I wonder if the husband would have to take her further afield to be able to get shed of her.

by Anonymousreply 20April 8, 2021 10:17 AM

Maybe trans can make this part of their whole psychodrama that they want us all to play supporting roles in. I’ll be the fop, delicately raiding my cambric handkerchief to my nose as I step past heaps of garbage on my way to the trans wife auction.

by Anonymousreply 21April 8, 2021 11:23 PM

This happened in Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge.

by Anonymousreply 22April 8, 2021 11:24 PM

Omg cancel Hardy!

by Anonymousreply 23April 8, 2021 11:29 PM

Hardy was criticising the practice, R23.

by Anonymousreply 24April 8, 2021 11:35 PM

Oh that’s disappointing. Another SJW.

by Anonymousreply 25April 8, 2021 11:37 PM

According to the local folklore book I’m reading, wife auctions used to take place in the town square of my English home city.

Bit saddened to read of that, if we’re honest.

by Anonymousreply 26April 23, 2022 9:58 PM

I suppose that's where dowry comes into play; if the father gave you a dowry (paid you to take her off his hands), you had to keep her because you bought her off her father. If she was poor & you got nothing from dad, well she's your property to do what you want with

by Anonymousreply 27April 23, 2022 10:02 PM

R17, thing is, a wife loses half her value the second you take her off the lot.

by Anonymousreply 28April 23, 2022 10:08 PM

I'd rather have a used car then a used wife 😏

by Anonymousreply 29April 23, 2022 10:13 PM
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