There is no continuous tradition in the UK from the 18th century guitar to the way it's used today.

In the UK, the guitar replaced the banjo and ukulele - those were the predominant rhythm/chordal instruments in the dancebands and music-hall acts of the early 20th century. If you look at early 20th century song sheets they often have fret diagrams for chords - but they're for the uke, not the guitar. (Why the replacement? - at a guess because banjos were too heavy and expensive and ukuleles just smelt of poo).