Sale of a Wife

Evo

Seems in Scotland in the early 19th century women were considered the property of their husbands and could be sold. A farmer bought her for 2 pounds, 5 shillings.

The full transcription is located here if you don't want to strain your eyes. http://www.nls.uk/broadsides/broadsi...1/transcript/1

Integral

Ahhh.... The good ol' days.

Pengwuino

What a rip-off

Evo

Here's a link to 1,800 such "broadsides", the tabloids of the day. Dating from 1650. Wow, some of these are a bit gruesome.

http://www.nls.uk/broadsides/search.html

Evo

I didn't realize it was legal so recently. Of course women couldn't sell their husbands.

Silverbackman

Maybe not sell but many women had to buy their husbands in many different cultures (dowry) . In fact this is still practiced today in some parts of the world.

arildno

Rictor Norton's page is quite good on the eighteenth century newspaper reports:
http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/grub/grub.htm

Evo

Oooh, thanks Arildno!