This story is probably well known. It was thought to be establishing legal precedent at the time and went up to London to the Queen's Bench, but I only know of this newspaper account of 1839 and not the end of the story. Thomas Hardy 'experts' have also probably met with it but it happened here, in Exeter and this is the first I have heard of it.
John Crabb, a cordwainer, and James Glendenning were neighbours. The lived in Ewing's Lane in the Parish of St. Mary Steps. John Crabb, as reported in The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 6th July 1839, sold his wife to James Glendenning:
"a kind of agreement was drawn up by one Inch. at the Round Tree public house in which Crabb agrees to separate from his wife, and to sell her to Glendenning for a shilling! tenpence of which was spent in beer, and twopence in tobacco!! This was signed by the parties concerned and the woman went with Glendenning to live, within a few doors of her husband.".
It would seem nothing of this would have come to light had not the Beadle of the Corporation of the Poor managed to obtain John Crabb's conviction by the Magistrates for deserting his wife and child and suffering them to become chargeable to the parish. John was sentenced to be sent to the Exeter House of Correction for a month. He, however, appealed against this sentence on the grounds that his wife, by then, had for some time been living 'in open adultery' with James Glendenning.
His appeal case was heard at the General Quarter Sessions at the Exeter Guildhall. It was something of a field-day for all concerned. The case 'afforded much latitude for the forensic talent and ingenuity of the learned gentlemen engaged who cited old and new cases pro and con in abundance.' The witnesses on both sides were 'of a class such as are seldom seen in a Court of Justice except in another character'.
The conclusion was that the Recorder was of the opinion that:
The woman had deprived herself, by her conduct, of all claim upon the husband, who was not liable to provide either for her or her offspring, under the circumstances."
He concluded the 'conviction must be squashed' but the respondents were not satisfied, they asked to take the case to the Queen's Bench. The Recorder granted their request (more work for the lawyers!) and he told the court : 'a more foul and filthy case I never before heard of''.
The unnamed 'woman' seems to have had no voice in all this....and the child?!!!
The costs, for which John Crabb was liable, must have been altogether crippling. He must have wished he had gone to prison for a month (and no doubt he regretted having asked so little money for his wife and child!)
I am intrigued by the man called Inch who, in the pub?, would draw up documents so that you could sell your wife. I wonder how often he did that.
The Mayor of Casterbridge was published in 1886. I imagine someone by now will have worked out if Hardy knew of this case.
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