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Wifeselling?


dunsbyowl1867

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Came across this print (don't think it's Sheffield) but the subject apparently did take place in Sheffield in 1803. Someone sold their wife ! Just like in Hardy's the Mayor of Casterbridge. Anyone come across this story?

I, of course, wouldn't sell my wife for all the tea in China but if Wednesday ever got to an FA Cup Final again....

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Came across this print (don't think it's Sheffield) but the subject apparently did take place in Sheffield in 1803. Someone sold their wife ! Just like in Hardy's the Mayor of Casterbridge. Anyone come across this story?

I, of course, wouldn't sell my wife for all the tea in China but if Wednesday ever got to an FA Cup Final again....

I'd be quite happy to sell mine for a nice, old rusty knife ...

The wife-on-a-tether, for sale business took place in Paradise Square, if memory serves, she went for sixpence

I think the detail is in Reminisenses of Old Sheffield.

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Taken from the excellent University of Sheffield, National Fairground Archive.

"Sheffield was one such fair established by charter during the reign of Edward I. The original charter was obtained by Thomas de Furnival from the King, on the 12th November 1296, and granted the right for an annual fair to be held during the three days of the Holy Trinity. By the eighteenth century the fair was still important in the lives of Sheffield folk. One function of the fair was to punish scolding women in public on the cuckstool; another was to give a husband the opportunity to sell his wife! In 1796 it was reported that John Lees, a steel burner, delivered his wife with an halter round the neck to the clerk of the fair and she was sold to Samuel Hall for 6d. It seems the practice survived until at least 1822."

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she was sold to Samuel Hall for 6d. It seems the practice survived until at least 1822."

It seems the practise would survive in Wallsend in 2007, if I couse find a buyer !

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