There's a lot o' brothers knockin' abaht as people don't know on, eh what? 1908, Charles Rann Kennedy, The Servant in the House:
Ther wor nowt for it but to be wed bi licence, an' hah to get th' brass Dick couldn't tell, but at last he detarmined to tell one ov his shopmates all abaht it, an' ax him to advance him twenty paand, to be paid back as sooin as he gate th' properties. 1915, John Hartley, Yorksher Puddin':
So when the war broke out, sez 'e: "Well, wot abaht it, Joe?" 1958, Robert W. Service, Rhymes of a Red Cross Man: