Wethey

Recorded in a number of spellings including Wethey, Weathey, Weethy, and Wheathey, this is an English surname. It is clearly locational, and therefore from some place, although nothing quite like any of the known surname spellings appears in any of the gazetters of Britain for the past three hundred years. This suggests that either the surviving surname is a transposition of some other place name such as Wetherby in Yorkshire, or it derives from a now "lost" medieval village, of which the surname in its varied forms, is the only reminder. Over three thousand such surnames of the British Isles are known to exist, so whilst unusual it is not an entirely uncommon phenomena. If this is the case then the origination is probably from the pre 7th century words "wether-eg" or the island (eg) where sheep were kept. This may not have been an island as such, it could have referred to an area of land which had been cleared for farming, perhaps in a forest or some otherwise uncultivated region. As to where this place was we have no proof. The surname is well recorded in the surviving registers of the diocese of Greater London, and examples include Batholomew Weethy, whose daughter Alse, was christened at the church of St Martin-Vintry, on December 12th 1622, and Richard Wethey whose daughter Anne, was christened at St James Garlickhythe, on February 11th 1787.