Frolicksome Women & Troublesome Wives: Wife Selling in England

In the late 18th century, the French claimed an Englishman tired of his wife could dispose of her at Smithfield’s beast market. Examples can be found scattered through press records. Some were, as often claimed, brutal, sometimes drunken affairs. But they varied widely over time, place, and practice. England was the only Protestant nation to retain its pre-reformation marriage and divorce laws. Marriage continued to be easily entered into, but was virtually impossible to escape. Sales took ...