Here is some news on my latest post - not as alarming as it sounds - I am writing about the 18th century!
In 1553, clergyman Thomas Snowdell sold his wife to a butcher. After a decree by Queen Mary I, that any clergy who married during the brief period of Protestantism during the preceding reign, would be put out of their living, it was a straight choice for Thomas, in which his wife lost.
Indeed since a wife was her husband’s property and there were no laws against selling a spouse, it was not an uncommon occurrence (as described in Thomas Hardy’s ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge.’)
One shilling was an average price for a wife….
http://graceelliot-author.blogspot.c...h-century.html
