Can I use an early - 1916 drive shaft with a 1922 rear end assembly?
Sure. The spool needs to match the rear end, so you need to use a late model "open" spool.
Or an early spool with the lip removed.
Don't ruin an early spool to make it work. Later open spools are easy to find.
I thought the driveshaft went into the torque tube? In that case, the lip doesn't matter. If we are talking about torque tubes, then it does. I just checked the book, and Ford refers to the torque tube as drive shaft tube!