Also 5–6 whery(e, 6 wherrye, -ey, where, whirie, whyr(i)e, whyrry(e, -ie, wheary, 6–7 wherie, whirr(e)y, -ie, 7 wheery, 9 whurry. [Etymology obscure perh. f. WHIRR with suggestion of rapid movement.]
1. A light rowing-bont used chiefly on rivers to carry passengers and goods.
1443. For. Acc. 21 Hen. VI., G dorso (P.R.O.). Vnius Batelle vocate Whery.
c. 1515. Cocke Lorell’s B., 6. There came suche a winde fro wynchester That blewe these women ouer the ryuer, In wherye.
1534. Wriothesley, Chron. (Camden), I. 24. For murderinge of two straungers in a wherie in the Thomes.
1536. MSS. Dk. Rutland (Hist. MSS. Comm.), IV. 277. Payd to Robert Day … for 1 day with his where with my Lady,… viij d.
1555. Act 2 & 3 Phil. & Mary, c. 16. Preamble, The Whiries & Boates nowe occupied & used and of late tyme made for Rowing upon the said Ryver [Thames].
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 635. He toke a Whirry, and so escaped to London.
a. 1591. H. Smith, Six Serm. (1594), 83. They tremble for feare, like women that shrike at euery stir in the whirry.
1666. Pepys, Diary, 13 Sept. My pictures and fine things, that I will bring home in wherrys.
1689. Wood, Life (O.H.S.), III. 302. John Temple … flung himself over a wherry when it was shooting London bridge.
1723. Swift, Judge Boat, 24. Our Boat is now sail’d to the Stygian Ferry, There to supply old Charon’s leaky Wherry.
1759. Universal Chron., 14–21 July, 231/1. Two young fellows going up the Isis in a wherry with a sail, were overset by a sudden gust of wind.
1780. Falconer, Dict. Marine, Yawl, a wherry or small ship’s boat, usually rowed by four or six oars.
1857. Dickens, Dorrit, II. ix. Nothing moving on the stream but watermen’s wherries and coal-lighters.
1861. Chamb. Encycl., II. 177/2. The Thames wherry … is stoutly built and is constructed to carry about eight passengers. It is usually managed by one sculler or two oarsmen.
1877. Black, Green Past., xxvii. Smaller craft—wherries, steam-launches, tenders, and what not.
2. A large boat of the barge kind: see quots. local.
a. 1589. R. Lane, in Hakluyt’s Voy., 740. I tooke a resolution with my selfe … to enter presently so farre into that Riuer with two double whirries, and fourtie persons one or other.
1691. Lond. Gaz., No. 2672/3. Four large Wheries … which we brought … from Dublin, in which were put 150 Granadiers.
a. 1788. in Orig. Forty-Five (S. H. S. 1916), 260. They were alarmed by five wherries, the same, as they supposed, that landed the Campbells the night before…. The wherries sailed by to the southward without ever stopping.
1829. Brockett, N. C. Gloss. (ed. 2), Whurry, wherry, a large boat—a sort of barge or lighter.
1857. Wright, Prov. Dict., s.v., A wherry … on the East-Norfolk and East-Suffolk rivers it is a large sailing boat, carrying from 15 to 35 tons of merchandise.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., wherry,… a decked vessel used in fishing in different parts of Great Britain and Ireland.
1891. Daily News, 3 Oct., 3/8. The steamer … ran into a coal wherry belonging to Atkinson, Shields.
3. A large four-wheeled dray or cart without sides, local.
1881. [see wherry driver in 4].
1886. Leeds Mercury, 1 April. One new light Spring Wherry, carry one ton.
4. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 1) wherry-boat, -rower, -slave, -wharf, (sense 2) wherry yacht, (sense 3) wherry-driver. Also WHERRYMAN.
1538. Fitzherb., Just. Peas, 134. Passynge the riuers of Thames or Medwaye by barge or *wheribote.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXV. x. The Captaine … escaped to the key, where he tooke a small barge or whirrie-bote.
1881. Instr. Census Clerks (1885), Index 178. *Wherry driver.
c. 1515. Cocke Lorell’s B., 11. Bargemen, *whery rowers, and dysers.
1569. Jewel, Def. Apol. (1571), 202. You maie remember, that Iulius the 2 … from a *whearyslaue, not longe sithence became a Pope.
1884. ‘H. Collingwood,’ Under Meteor Flag, xxiv. We reached the *wherry-wharf at Kingston.
1896. Daily News, 3 June, 5/6. At Lowestoft…. Dr. Jameson … boarded a wherry yacht.
Hence Wherry v. trans., to carry in or as in a wherry: Wherrying vbl. sb., the plying of a wherry.
1827. Montgomery, Pelican Isl., I. 244. Buoyant shells, On stormless voyages … Wherried their tiny mariners.
1902. C. F. Marsh, in Longm. Mag., Nov., 41. I chucked up th’ wherryen’ and went deek-drawen’.
1909. Daily Chron., 30 Dec., 3/1. [They] are men who have always picked up their living by wild fowling, poaching, wherrying.
