Michaelmas Sessions 1833

This case relates to a man named Isaac Spencer, who, believing that selling his wife publicly in the market place, with a halter round her neck, would have the full force of a divorce legally obtained, took his wife (equally willing to try a change of circumstances) into the public market at Melksham, and there disposed of her for 2s. 6d. to a man named William Watts. Both were committed to prison for the offence, but Watts was acquitted.

County of Wiltshire, Fisherton Gaol, STATISTICS OF CRIME, 1801–1850.