There is a reference to a huswife in Memoirs of a Coxcomb, by John Cleland (1709-1789) and published in 1751. There is a comparable reference to a huswife in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, when Fanny Dashwood is shocked on discovering Lucy and Edward’s engagement, while her companion, Nancy Steel, is only concerned about losing her huswife: "And for my part, I was all in a fright for fear your sister should ask us for the huswifes she had gave us a day or two before; but however, nothing was said about them, and I took care to keep mine out sight." Sense and Sensibility was written in 1795 and first published in 1811.
Source: Shorter Oxford English Dictionary: 'Housewife'.
Digital source of illustration (retrieved 7 July 2016).
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