An 1874 Public Shaming of a Missing Wife
A husband publishes a newspaper notice to strip his spouse of financial agency after she leaves their home.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
NOTICE: My wife, Selina Tully, having left my bed and board without any just cause, I hereby give notice that I will not be responsible for any debts of her contracting, and forbid anyone furnishing her any money or goods on my account. THOMAS TULLY. Seattle, June 21, 1874.
“I hereby give notice that I will not be responsible for any debts of her contracting.”
This notice reflects the era's legal standard of coverture, where a woman's identity was legally bound to her husband's credit. While today's divorce laws are vastly different, these 'elopement notices' reveal the raw, public ways domestic disputes were weaponized in 19th-century Seattle.
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