 Another form of wife selling was by deed of conveyance . Although initially much less common than sale by auction , the practice became more widespread after the 1850s , as popular opinion turned against the market sale of a wife . The issue of the commonly perceived legitimacy of wife selling was also brought to the government . In 1881 , Home Secretary William Harcourt was asked to comment on an incident in Sheffield , in which a man sold his wife for a quart of beer . Harcourt replied : " no impression exists anywhere in England that the selling of wives is legitimate " , and " that no such practice as wife selling exists " , but as late as 1889 , a member of the Salvation Army sold his wife for a shilling in Hucknall Torkard , Nottinghamshire , and subsequently led her by the halter to her buyer 's house , the last case in which the use of a halter is mentioned . The most recent case of an English wife sale was reported in 1913 , when a woman giving evidence in a Leeds police court during a maintenance case claimed that her husband had sold her to one of his workmates for £ 1 ( equivalent to about £ 90 in 2016 ) . The manner of her sale is unrecorded . 
