The little squiggle at the end of a line was used at least up to the 18th century and was used to indicate what the first note in the next line would be, whether or not it was unusual or awkward.

(Another thing they sometimes did was to use a dotted note at the end of a measure instead of tying the note over into the next bar.)

I suppose the elements that musicians of the day found most useful were continued on into the next generation and those that were felt to be unnecessary were not - natural selection again!

Cheers,

Weasel