A divorce in 18th century England was exceedingly difficult for the aristocracy to obtain and an impossibility for the lower orders. However, English commoners have always been a scrappy lot and through their resourcefulness devised the means to dissolve unhappy marriages with "The Wife Sale." So popular was this device that it was only due to Victorian objection that the practice was finally abolished. When wife selling was at its most popular, there occurred three hundred of them between the years of 1780 and 1850. Whilst this method of separation was never legally sanctioned, the law tended to turn a blind eye as long as the sale was agreeable to all parties involved. Because wife selling was not legal, with no papers being issued to either party making the separation official, these sales were conducted in public to make the separation a witnessed fact.

Perhaps the one occasion on which a gathering crowd could be depended upon was the regular market day in any parish. Therefore, it was quite popular to conduct wife sales in a market square, much to the delight of the crowd. To further link the sale to the market place, the wife to be sold had a halter placed around her neck and was led to the auction block by her husband.

However, these sales were conducted only by mutual consent. A husband could not drag his wife to market and open the bidding if she were reluctant. Wife sales were an amicable way for two unhappy partners to dissolve a marriage and start anew. More importantly, though the sale took place in a public arena it was all done for show. In fact, the lady already knew who the highest bidder would be, as that gentleman was most likely already her paramour. The trappings of an auction sale served only to amuse the populace.

The aristocracy, however, was not amused. An issue of The Times contained the following passage regarding a wife sale which took place in London in 1799: "On Friday a butcher exposed his wife to sale in Smithfield Market, near the Ram Inn, with a halter about her neck, and one about her waist, which tied her to a railing; when a hog driver was the happy purchaser, who gave the husband three guineas and a crown for his departed rib. Pity it is there is no stop put to such depraved conduct in the lower order of people."

Monies that changed hands was always nominal; meant to be a token sum rather than a true financial gain. In some parts of England, both the ex-husband and the buyer spat upon their palms before sealing the sale with a handshake and shouting out the selling price, which in the London markets amounted to any where from five to ten shillings. Business completed, it was usual for all parties concerned to visit some tavern or alehouse, where the former husband bought a round of drinks for all present with the proceeds from the sale. It was usual for the ex-wife to symbolically return her wedding ring to the former husband. From the time of the sale onwards, the ex-husband was no longer financially obligated to the wife.

Was the aristocracy entitled to their "better than thou" views regarding wife sales? One thinks not upon examination of private separations, drawn up by the two parties, with a Justice of the Peace sometimes being asked to settle the financial terms, thus lending an official air to the proceedings. How veddy civil it sounds-until we hear about the noble husband who warned tradesman against extending credit to his wife, or the husband who, wishing his wife back, kidnapped her and held her captive until her relatives arrived- a writ of habeas corpus and the law in tow!