 Five distinct methods of breaking up a marriage existed in the early modern period of English history . One was to sue in the ecclesiastical courts for separation from bed and board ( a mensa et thoro ) , on the grounds of adultery or life @-@ threatening cruelty , but it did not allow a remarriage . From the 1550s , until the Matrimonial Causes Act became law in 1857 , divorce in England was only possible , if at all , by the complex and costly procedure of a private Act of Parliament . Although the divorce courts set up in the wake of the 1857 Act made the procedure considerably cheaper , divorce remained prohibitively expensive for the poorer members of society . An alternative was to obtain a " private separation " , an agreement negotiated between both spouses , embodied in a deed of separation drawn up by a conveyancer . Desertion or elopement was also possible , whereby the wife was forced out of the family home , or the husband simply set up a new home with his mistress . Finally , the less popular notion of wife selling was an alternative but illegitimate method of ending a marriage . The Laws Respecting Women , As They Regard Their Natural Rights ( 1777 ) observed that , for the poor , wife selling was viewed as a " method of dissolving marriage " , when " a husband and wife find themselves heartily tired of each other , and agree to part , if the man has a mind to authenticate the intended separation by making it a matter of public notoriety " . 
