Joel provides the example:

[Wilson Gray]

"... six _Pieces of_ Cannon ..."

from 1734.

For years, I've had a vague memory that, when I was a young'un,
"cannon," like "sheep" and a few other, random words, had no plural
that was expressed in spelling or pronunciation. However, I've been
seeing and hearing "cannons" for dekkids, with no counterexamples,
with the consequence that I was beginning to, almost unbelievably, in
my case, doubt my memory.

Of course, we were taught, "six cannon," and not "six _pieces_" thereof.

However, among the better class of bridge-players, "six pieces of
club," for example, is preferred to the more mundane "six clubs," when
speaking of one's holdings. I first heard the long form spoken by a
West Indian, leading me to regard this erroneously as a foreignism.
Later, I had occasion to hear the jargon of bridge as used by the
better class of players, allowing me to correct my initial
mispreapprehension.

-Wilson
--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
 -Sam'l Clemens

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