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Archiver > GENBRIT > 1998-04 > 0891464640


From: Bill Bedford< >
Subject: Re: Believe it or Believe it not Dept (2)
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 22:04:00 +0100


Mike Gallafent <> wrote:

> Published in the London newspaper 'The Times' 3 May 1932.
>
> From Dr. Cloudesley Brereton
>
> Sir,
> The extract on the sale of a wife from 'The Times' of 100 years ago,
> in your issue of today, reminds me of what the late George Danby
> Kerrison once told me. As a small boy he was riding one day with his
> uncle down one of our Norfolk roads, when they came across a farmer
> standing by the wayside with a woman 'with only her shift on' and a rope
> around her neck, as if she were an animal for sale. She was his wife,
> and he was offering her to passers-by for 10s. Another farmer bought
> her, and the curious thing is that the woman, who lived for several
> years with her second 'husband', was treated by the neighbours with
> exactly the same consideration as if she had been his lawful wife.
> Judging by my friend's age, this must have happened much later than 1832
> - round about 1840, in fact.
> Yours faithfully,
> Cloudesley Brereton
>
> One wonders if the above is a rare occurrence. (In the interests of
> personal domestic harmony I eschew any suggestion of seeking a precedent
> and merely incline to an academic interest:) How does the IGI handle
> such information? Is there an unknown section recording 'sale & wants'?
>
> Just in case anyone suggests that I am off topic and that this item
> should be in soc.genealogy.marketplace I would reply that until we have
> knowledge of a current transaction let it remain here:)

What such accounts do not touch on, and almost always cannot because
they are written by outsiders, is the relationship between the wife and
the second husband before the sale. I believe it was the case that such
sales were a way of publicly acknowledging changed private circumstances
without involving 'The Authorities". Also that they were arranged in
such a way that the 'correct' man made the purchase .
--
Getting an education is a bit like a communicable sexually disease, It
makes you unsuitable for lots of jobs, then you have the urge to
pass it on.
T Pratchett

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