Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a general excl. of affirmation.

1846		Swell’s Night Guide 50: S’elp me never, if Fuzzy didn’t collar ’em and hung ’em up in the flue to make bacon of ’em.
1852		‘The Cadger’s Ball’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 147: They all declar’d, so help their never, / They’d vind up vith a stunnin’ ball!
1856		Westmorland Gaz. 1 Nov. 6/4: ‘S’elp me never so much.’ We now proceed to the disfranchisement claims.
1866		Wild Boys of London I 183/2: ‘So help me never!’ he said, starting back in an intensity of delight and astonishment.
1881		‘’Arry on Fashion’ Punch 10 Sept. 110/2: O Scissors! it makes a chap shirty, it do s’welp me never, dear boy.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 413: S’elp me never, I was down on the knuckle when I got there.
1895		E. Pugh Street in Suburbia 160: It’s a’ uncommon rich deal of’ your’n – sowelp me never, it is!
1907		Cheltenham Chron. 14 Dec. 2/3: Even the wenches carrying round the corfee [...] cried ‘S’elp me never’.
1916		G. Squiers Aerbut Paerks, of Baernegum 9: Till death us do part, so ’elp me never.