Pl. -men. Forms: see WHERRY sb.1; also 6 whirriman, 6–7 wherriman. [f. WHERRY sb.1 + MAN sb.1 4 p.] A man employed on a wherry (sense 1 or 2).
1535. Coverdale, Ezek. xxvii. 28. All whirry men, and all maryners vpon the see.
1542. in Sel. Pleas Crt. Admiralty (Selden Soc.), I. 116. John Peers … of the parishe of Sainte Olyff in the Burge of Sowthwerke wherryman.
1549. Latimer, 6th Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (Arb.), 176. There is neuer a whirriman at Westminster brydge, but he can answere to thys.
1593. Bacon, Lett. to Earl of Essex, 10 Nov. As he that is an excellent wherryman, who you know looketh towards the bridge when he pulleth towards Westminster.
1661. in Extr. St. Papers rel. Friends, Ser. II. (1911), 130. Thomas Tracey of Great Yarmouth … wherryman.
1766. Entick, London, IV. 145. The society of watermen and wherrymen.
1905. A. I. Shand, Days of Past, ii. 19. They had run the old wherrymen and scullers off the Thames.
1891. Instr. Census Clerks (1885), Index 178.
1893. P. H. Emerson (title), On English Lagoons, being an account of the Voyage of Two Amateur Wherrymen on the Norfolk and Suffolk Rivers and Broads.
1897. Daily News, 14 Dec., 5/3. Wherrymen and anglers report the destruction of large numbers of coarse fish in the lower reaches of the Norfolk tidal rivers.
