Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a homely woman.

1512		Hickscorner Aiii: Kockes passyon my noble is tourned to a stone Where laye I last beshrewe your herte Jone Now by these bones she hath begyled me [...] Now by these bones I haue lost an halfpeny.
c.1520		Wife lapped in Morrelles Skin in Hazlitt Early Popular Poetry IV line 899: Fyrst I will make thee sweate, good Jone.
c.1538		Thersytes (1550) D i: Jynkyn Jacon that iobbed iolye Jone.
1555		J. Heywood Epigrams upon Proverbs clix: There be mo maydes then Malkin, thou sayst truth Jone, But how may we be sure, that Malkyn is one.
1568		U. Fulwell Like Will to Like 11: To thee shall come hobbling Jone.
c.1580		‘I.T.’ Grim The Collier of Croydon I iv: And now, sweet Ione, be it openly known thou art my own.
c.1595		Shakespeare Love’s Labour’s Lost III i: Some men must love my lady, and some Joan.
1610		‘He that Hath No Mistress’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) I 34: And he that hath no Lady, / must be content with Jone.
c.1621		Beaumont & Fletcher Wild-Goose-Chase IV i: Her name is Jumping-Jone, an ancient Sin-Weaver.
1632		T. Nabbes Covent Garden III i: What if my Lady Mothers Chamber-maid and Ioane in the Kitchen were here?
1648		R. Herrick ‘Upon Jone and Jane’ Hesperides 269: Yet Jone she goes / Like one of those / Whom purity has Sainted!
1654		Mercurius Fumigosus 24 8–15 Nov. 203: When Moll must kneel to her maid Jone.
1660		J. Tatham Rump II i: I am call’d Old Joan, old Bess, old Bedlam [...] the Commonwealth’s Night Mare.
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 135: Exchanging my fine Madamship for plain Joanship.
1672		Wycherley Love in a Wood II i: sir simon: Are you handsom? flippant: Jone’s as good as my Lady in the dark certainly.
1687		M. Clifford Notes upon Mr Dryden’s Poems 30: A Friend of his broke off his Match with Cloris, to marry Old Joan.
1691		J. Wilson Belphegor II iv: A downright country Joan!
c.1700		London-Bawd (1705) 47: A dirty homely Joan!
1714		J. Gay Shepherd’s Week 3rd Pastoral 22: At wakes where Joan and Hodge rejoice.
1724		A. Ramsay Tea-table Misc. (1733) l IV 380: There’s buxome Joan, it is well known She loves me as her life.
1739		R. Bull Grobianus 219: Thy Coat’s all ragged, rent, and torn, (Rent like the Placket of immortal Joan).
1748		L. Pilkington Memoirs (1928) I 130: He [...] repaired to his usual haunt, i.e., to buxom Joan.
1794		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Exposulatory Odes’ Works (1794) II 334: Just like a turkey, goose, or duck, Prepar’d by Joan the cook.
1821		W. Combe Doctor Syntax, Wife (1868) 266/2: There’s Billy Humble, will not own / That he detests his bouncing Joan.
1852		Thackeray Henry Esmond (1898) 272: If we had not met Joan, we should have met Kate, and adored her.
1912		Ade Knocking the Neighbors 170: He saw a Bevy of plump Joans who were hanging Chintz Curtains.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 175: Breeches may disguise a woman but never change her sex, that Joans may be relied upon to lead an army into battle but never may be trusted not to betray it for the sake of love.