Drop spindles? Part 1b - where does the term come from? looking further back

In Part 1 of this series, I talked about when the term 'drop spindle' was introduced into the English language. I had managed to trace it back to at least 1957, in an academic context in the USA. However, when I shared this post on The Evangelical Church of Distaff Spinning I got lots of new suggestions for places to look for evidence.

Hence, a Part 1b was required!

Drop spindles? Part 1 - what are they? where does the term come from?

What is a drop spindle? For anyone who's familiar with textile crafts this is an easy question. They're a familiar tool and can be easily purchased online or elsewhere. Generally what people think when you say "drop spindle" looks something like this:

Selection of drop spindles, from the first page of an image search using a well-known search engine.

This is fine when talking about modern spinning. However, when we come to talk about historic spinning, this becomes problematic. (This is a pair of posts about terminology and may involve a fair bit of ranting. You have been warned...)