WHEN WIVES WERE SOLD BY AUCTION.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 209, 15 September 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

WHEN WIVES WERE SOLD BY AUCTION.

The legend that :h ■ Englishman tel • his wife at SmithfLelr' was popular •.):: the Continent until ; compaartiveiy recent epoch, but probably few art aware that a century ago these transact:ons were still p v . itised, A notable can' occurred on July 13, 1515. tlie partes not being (as was so frequently the case) low-class people, but men oi property, if not of position. The lady, "young, beautiful, and elegantly dressed," was brought in a coach to Smithheld about •"> p.m., and exposed to the view of the purchaser. The halter which custom required she •diould have round her neck, was of <i!k. and she wore a r : ch white lace veil. The pine first asked wa> eghtv guineas, but finally *the purchase* agreed to give fifty guineas and the horse he was riding: be iwas by proles>inn a horse-dealer. The lady then mounted a tandem cuticle which was waiting, and drove off, nothing loth with her new proprietor. The vendor was a graz.'xr living some five or six miles from town. "The intention ii this disgusting bargain" s;iys the newspaper report " is to deprive the husband' of any right for prosecution for damages.'' Of course such cases were exceptional. A< a rule, the parties w«»r« of birth as low as their morals Somesix months before, a Goudhurst man 'orought h : s wife to Maidstone to so'' her in the public market, hut "it not being market day, the auction wis removed to the Coal Qarge tavern.' where she was actually sold to a man named William Sergeant, with her child, for £1 sterl'ng.