 Although some 19th @-@ century wives objected , records of 18th @-@ century women resisting their sales are non @-@ existent . With no financial resources , and no skills on which to trade , for many women a sale was the only way out of an unhappy marriage . Indeed , the wife is sometimes reported as having insisted on the sale . A wife sold in Wenlock Market for 2s . 6d. in 1830 was quite determined that the transaction should go ahead , despite her husband 's last @-@ minute misgivings : " ' e [ the husband ] turned shy , and tried to get out of the business , but Mattie mad ' un stick to it . ' Er flipt her apern in ' er gude man 's face , and said , ' Let be yer rogue . I wull be sold . I wants a change ' . " 
