These possessives are traced back to the years 1340 and 1410: N.E.D.

1

1821.  His’n, Hern, Ourn, Yourn, are quoted by Dr. Dwight as cockneyisms.—‘Travels,’ iv. 280.

2

1825.  “I happens into that air store o’ his’n;” it was a room over a tavern.—John Neal, ‘Brother Jonathan,’ i. 157.

3

1841.  I know that dog of his ’n, that Wommut. He ’s my dog Slaughter, and that fellow must have stole him, and changed his name.—Knick. Mag., xviii. 191 (Sept.).

4

1844.  

        When Peggy’s dog her arms imprison,
I often wish my lot was hissen;
How often should I stand and turn
To get a pat from hands like hern.
Phila. Spirit of the Times, Aug. 19. (The N.E.D. attributes the lines to Hood, ab. 1845.)    

5

1847.  I seen she [the “panter”] were arter my throat! and with that I grabbed hern, and commenced pourin’ it into her side with my fist, like cats-a-fightin!—T. B. Thorpe, ‘The Big Bear of Arkansas: Chunkey’s Fight,’ p. 137 (Phila.). (Italics in the original.)

6

1848.  

        I seen her on the sidewalk
  When I run with number 9:
My eyes spontaneous sought out hern—
  And hern was fixed on mine.
Durivage and Burnham, ‘Love in the Bowery: Stray Subjects,’ p. 107.    

7

1851.  I kalkilated them curs o’ hisn wasn’t worth shucks in a bar fight.—‘Polly Peablossom’s Wedding,’ &c., p. 51.

8

1851.  ‘Will you have a cigar yourself?’ ‘Yes, thank ye.’ ‘Will you?’ (to bridesmaid.) ‘No, I ’ll wait till she gets along some, and then I ’ll take a pull at her’n.’—Knick. Mag., xxxvii. 182 (Feb.).

9

1852.  

        Oh! could Napoleon have bu’st the chain
  That bound him to his prison,
He ’d ha’ scared the nations once again
  With that eagle-eye o’ his’n!
Id., xxxix. 201 (Feb.).    

10

1855.  

        She has gone to Abraham’s breast
Thar to lay and rest
with angels in the sky
unto a long eternity
and we are left to mourn
and wish our lot was hern.
Id., xlv. 312 (March).    

11

1856.  I was only too eager to git out of sich hands as his’n and your’n!—W. G. Simms, ‘Eutaw,’ p. 19.

12

1856.  

        He was her’n, and she was his’n,
Ever her’n and ever his’n,
Her’n and his’n, now and ever,
Each one wishing for our hero.
Yale Lit. Mag., xxi. 231 (April).    

13

1857.  

        The drift of these ere lines so fine,
  Penned by a sailor-boy,
Which rival his’n who, ‘lang syne,’
  Rit tales of Betty Foy.
Knick. Mag., l. 454 (Nov.).    

14

1862.  

        His heart kep’ goin’ pity-pat,
  But hern went pity Zekle.
J. R. Lowell, ‘The Courtin’.’    

15

1862.  See AXE TO GRIND.

16