The Clupea serrata, a fish like a herring.

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1678.  The coming up of a Fish called Aloofes.—Winthrop, Phil. Trans., xii. 1066. (N.E.D.)

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1705.  The Old-Wife, a Fish not much unlike an Herring.—Beverley, ‘Virginia,’ ii. 31.

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1772.  A few Barrels of very good Alewives to be sold.—Boston Gazette, April 6.

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1789.  

        See the bold Hampshirites on Springfield pour,
The fierce Tauntonians croud the alewife shore.
‘American Museum,’ v. 95. (From a fictitious epic, ‘The Anarchiad.’)    

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1792.  With these [Indian scoop-nets] are caught salmon, shad, alewives, smelts and lampreys.—Jeremy Belknap, ‘New Hampshire,’ iii. 90.

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1798.  Act of Massachusetts, March 1, “for the preservation of Salmon, Shad, and Alewives.”

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1799.  For sale, a few barrels Alewives in good order.—Massachusetts Mercury, Feb. 5.

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1801.  An “Act to regulate the Alewive Fishery.”—Mass. Spy, June 24.

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1824.  Judge Lincoln always places as many dry alewives before his sheep as they can eat.—Nantucket Inquirer, Feb. 23.

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1824.  It is calculated that 40,000 alewives were taken in Plymouth at one haul last week.—Mass. Spy, May 19.

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