Dating crochet

I belong to several crochet groups wherein I'm asked about the history of crochet. Through personal research I've found crochet instructions and patterns dating as early as the 1850's. By the instructions, it seems that crochet is "rather new" at this point, but it's still been around long enough that it isn't introduced as a totally new needle art. While reviewing past issues of the Talking Crochet newsletter that I mentioned in the last post, I came across a reprint of an 1954 article " Excerpts from the Ladies Complete Guide to Crochet & Fancy Knitting, 1854".
The beginning paragraph states that crochet has been known for about 20 years. That's the closet that I've come to the beginning of known crochet history.