Definition of "vife"

[…] I said you didn't like them ere strong liquors, but if he warn't particular, I was sure you would pledge him in a glass of juniper, for I had always made you, since we had been man and vife[sic], take a drop afore you went to market, to keep cold out.

1834, Young Hearts: A Novel by a Recluse. With a Preface by Miss Jane Porter, page 106