The scribe rule system of building was followed well into the 1800's in the US and the joints used in this system are generally not housed. I have seen major load bearing bent girts (30 feet long) with tapered shoulders, but generally all girts have just a two inch tenon and no housing, even summer beams where the tenon is horizontal.
The "square rule" was developed about 1800 and the first squre rule building which we have been able to find was built in 1801 (identified by Jack Sobon thus winning a free TTRAG conference next year). In the account of the raising of this building the author noted the scepticism which the towns people and especially the older craftsmen greeted this new technique. Everyone came to see the young man fail and were amazed to see the building go together without a hitch and without the labor intensive prefitting of each and every piece.
The key to the "square rule system" is the housing. The post is reduced to a given dimension at the joint location creating a housing which is square to the referece face. By this method it is possible to mathematically predict the length of a girt or brace, and the axis of the shoulder cut. The ends of any girt could then be reduced to a predetermined height so that it was not necessary to fit the girts to complete the mortises in the posts. The housings and tenon sizing are the typical tell tale signs of a square rule building. This would be the first extensive use of housings in timber framed construction.
During the current revival of timber framing in the States it was the ability to have oak timbers planed S4S at the mill which allowed us to predict the size and shape of every joist,purlin, post and girt. This was a huge savings in layout time in the shop as before this we were "mapping" (recording the dimensions)each piece after we had planed the rough sawn timber square by hand using a 6" Makita power planer. It was clear that the timber sizer was better, more consistant and cheaper than we were at this. Prior to S4S timbers all joists and purlins were dovetailed into a girt or rafter. If the girt was out of square slightly the shoulder did not fir tightly. To remedy this we would "kerf the joint". This is a technique of running a handsaw along the face of the girt and guided by the girt cutting the shoulder of the joist or purlin to the dove tail in an effort to get a tight fit. In retrospect the intention was good but the idea was flawed for a number of reasons. First by kerfing the shoulder we shortened the piece changing the length of the building slightly and more importantly we loosened the dovetail. It must also be said that there are dovetails out there that were reduced in strength by an over zealous framer who kerfed too far. The remedy for the dovetail not fitting tightly was to wedge it from above. When the S4S timbers became available we step by step adapted and adopted the "housed dovetail" which eliminated kerfing, was clearly stronger, and moved the visual effects of timber shrinkage from one place to another. So it might be fair to say that the use of housed joinery in modern times is the based partly in available technology (a timber sizer)combined with reasonable efforts to simplify our layout system, an anal desire towards perfection and the natural adversion of the mind and body to spending days "kerfing in a frame".