 It is unclear when the ritualised custom of selling a wife by public auction first began , but it seems likely to have been some time towards the end of the 17th century . In November 1692 " John , ye son of Nathan Whitehouse , of Tipton , sold his wife to Mr. Bracegirdle " , although the manner of the sale is unrecorded . In 1696 , Thomas Heath <unk> was fined for " <unk> in an unlawful manner with the wife of George <unk> of <unk> ... <unk> bought her of her husband at <unk> the pound " , and ordered by the peculiar court at Thame to perform public penance , but between 1690 and 1750 only eight other cases are recorded in England . In an Oxford case of 1789 wife selling is described as " the vulgar form of Divorce lately adopted " , suggesting that even if it was by then established in some parts of the country it was only slowly spreading to others . It persisted in some form until the early 20th century , although by then in " an advanced state of decomposition " . 
