"In an evening paper we find the following story: 'A most disgusting and disgraceful scene happened in Smithfield Market on Monday last, which at the present day is of very rare occurrence. About two o'clock in the afternoon a fellow came into the market leading his wife by a halter, and gave her to a drover, desiring him to tie her to the pens and sell her to the best bidder. The woman, who did not appear to be above twenty-five years of age, and not bad looking, suffered herself to be tied up very quietly. A crowd of persons soon gathered round, and a man of rather respectable appearance entered into a negotiation with the drover for the purchase of the wife; and, after some higgling, she was finally knocked down to him for the sum of ten shillings. The money was paid, but the drover refused to release her except on payment of two shillings as his commission for the sale which he had effected. Some confusion took place about the demand, but it was eventually paid, and she was released from the pens, opposite the Half Moon public house, and delivered to her purchaser, who appeared highly pleased with his bargain. The parties adjourned to a neighbouring public house, where the late husband spent the greater part of the money in brandy and water.'"
The following is from the Times of April 26, 1832 (from the Lancaster Herald), and is somewhat out of the common run of these affairs:—
"Sale of a Wife by her Husband at Carlyle.
"On Saturday, the 7th instant, the inhabitants of this city witnessed the sale of a wife by her husband, Joseph Thompson, who resides in a small village about three miles from this city. He rents a farm of about forty-two or forty-four acres, and was married at Hexham in the year 1829 to his present wife. She is a spruce, lively, and buxom damsel, apparently not exceeding twenty-two years of age, and appeared to feel a pleasure at the exchange she was about to make. They had no children during their union, and that, together with some family disputes, caused them by mutual agreement to come to the resolution of finally parting. Accordingly the bellman was sent round to give public notice of the sale, which was to take place at twelve o'clock. This announcement attracted the notice of thousands. She appeared above the crowd, standing on a large oak chair, surrounded by many of her friends, with a rope or halter made of straw about her neck. She was dressed in rather a fashionable country style, and appeared to some advantage. The husband, who was also standing in an elevated position near her, proceeded to put her up for sale, and spoke nearly as follows:—
"'Gentlemen, I have to offer to your notice my wife, Mary Ann Thompson, otherwise Williamson, whom I mean to sell to the highest and fairest bidder. Gentlemen, it is her wish, as well as mine to part for ever. She has been to me only a bosom serpent. I took her for my comfort and the good of my house, but she became my tormentor, a domestic curse, a night invasion, and a daily devil. (Great laughter.) Gentlemen, I speak truth from my heart when I say, "May God deliver us from troublesome wives and frolicsome widows!" Avoid them as you would a mad dog, a roaring lion, a loaded pistol, cholera morbus, Mount Etna, or any other pestilential phenomena in nature.
"Now I have shown you the dark side of my wife, and told you her faults and her failings, I will introduce the bright and sunny side of her, and explain her qualifications and her goodness. She can read novels and milk cows; she can laugh and weep with the same ease that you can take a glass of ale when thirsty; indeed, gentlemen, she reminds me of what the poet says of women in general—
"'Heaven gave to women the peculiar grace,
To laugh, to weep, to cheat the human race.'
"She can make butter and scold the maid; she can sing Moore's Melodies, and plait her frills and caps; she cannot make rum, gin, or whisky, but she is a good judge of the quality from long experience in tasting them. I therefore offer her, with all her perfections and imperfections, for the sum of 50s.
"After an hour or two, she was purchased by Henry Mears, a pensioner, for the sum of 20s. and a Newfoundland dog. The happy people immediately left town together, amidst the shouts and huzzas of the multitude, in which they were joined by Thompson, who, with the greatest good humour imaginable, proceeded to put the halter which his wife had taken off round the neck of his Newfoundland dog, and then proceeded to the first public-house, where he spent the remainder of the day."
In the Times of March 25, 1833, is the following:—