 Towards the end of the 18th century , some hostility towards wife selling began to manifest itself amongst the general population . One sale in 1756 in Dublin was interrupted by a group of women who " rescued " the wife , following which the husband was given a mock trial and placed in the stocks until early the next morning . In about 1777 , a wife sale at Carmarthenshire produced in the crowd " a great silence " , and " a feeling of uneasiness in the gathering " . When a labourer offered his wife for sale on Smithfield market in 1806 , " the public became incensed at the husband , and would have severely punished him for his brutality , but for the interference of some officers of the police . " 
