 Wife selling persisted in England in some form until the early 20th century ; according to the jurist and historian James Bryce , writing in 1901 , wife sales were still occasionally taking place during his time . In one of the last reported instances of a wife sale in England , a woman giving evidence in a Leeds police court in 1913 claimed that she had been sold to one of her husband 's workmates for £ 1 . 
