Go where he might, he found hundreds anxious for employment, yet no employment could be had, unless they could travel to England, there to spend weeks in travelling round the country in quest of days of employment, the wages for which might enable them to pay their rent at home.
— from The Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign Why It Exists, and How It May Be Extinguished by Henry Charles Carey

Mandeville writes ‘l y til’ (little), ‘w y se’ (wise), ‘t y mes’ (times); and Wiclif has ‘with y nne’ (within), ‘rece y ve’ (receive), ‘wr y te’ (write), ‘fa y le’ (fail), ‘everlast y ne’ (everlasting), &c. In certain Greek words, however, the y still holds its place, as in ‘h y mn,’ ‘t y pe,’ ‘h y dra,’ ‘t y rant,’ ‘l y re,’ &c. These will probably long remain in the spelling.
— from A Book About Words by G. F. (George Frederick) Graham