Wife Selling

Wife is a long forgotten English custom. It was used as a cheap alternative to divorce from the 17th century onwards and involved a man auctioning off his unwanted (or unaffordable) wife in order to take on a newer (or cheaper) model - if he was lucky he might be ale to pick up a bargin at the same auction.

Although never strictly legal, the practice often occurred quite openly with sales often being advertised in the newspaper. One such example from 1683 read; "For sale, one wiffe. Most comely. Goode condition; but one carefull owner. 3 shillings and 4 pence O.N.O." Records show the she went for 5 shillings, making her husband a tidy profit with which he bought a new cow.

The phenomenon became increasingly rare but only finally died out in the 1960s when the sexual revolution caused the bottom to fall out of the market.