Notice of wife's debts in newspaper - courts involved?

[jlnorthrup]

In October of 1886, my 2x Great-grandfather (Thomas Chaplin) placed a notice in the paper stating he would not be responsible for his wife's debts (Sarah Ann) as of October 13th. This ran for 5 days in the Gloucestershire Echo. Can anyone tell me if there might be a court involved in this (and thus some paperwork)? Or was this a way to avoid that? They did not go their separate ways for at least 6 years. Can't seem to find an answer or a paper trail. Any help would be much appreciated!

[stanmapstone]

"when couples split up, wives often continued to use their husbands’ credit, even where they had no legal right to do so. To stop them doing this, husbands took out notices in newspapers to warn shopkeepers not to credit their wives." http://womenshistorynetwork.org/blog/?tag=married-womens-property-act

Stan

[jlnorthrup]

Thank you for this!  It would seem to confirm some suspicions, sadly, although they had three more children together after this.