Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a hackney coachman; thus jervis’ upper benjamin, a coachman’s greatcoat; note cite 1876, ‘slow and inelegant’.

1791		‘Highway-man’s Flash Song’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 20: By stopping of the Diligence / Put Jervis in a fright.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: Jarvis, a hackney coachman.
c.1800		‘Jarvis the Coachman’s Happy deliverance’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 139: My name it is Jarvis well known / A coachman I’ve been for some years.
c.1810		‘Gee up, Gee ho!’ in Holloway & Black II (1979) 78: The Coachman he does all the lasses awake, / ’Tis Jarvis — pray how d’ye do?
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 247: jervis a coachman [...] jervis’s upper benjamin a box, or coachman’s great coat.
1818		Salisbury & Winchester Jrnl 8 June 3: Honest Jarvey, that’s nothing to nobody.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 225: Jarvis took up the two shillings by order of the Magistrate.
1829		‘Hackney Coachman’ in C. Hindley James Catnach (1878) 197: Then pity poor Jarvey, kind gentlefolks, pray.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 18: [To] turn him out as a complete new article to [...] humbug the Jerveys; take in the dealers in horseflesh.
1832		Satirist (London) 2 Dec. 386/3: [A] capital specimen of the true London jarvey — short, stiff-built, and bow-legged, enveloped in two or three top-coats, with his chin sunk in the folds of a large red shawl.
1834		‘The Hoars Of Fleet Street’ in Flash Chaunter 38: Then my sister she came up to me, / And driven by a Jarvis.
1841		Punch 31 July I 28: My wife had some time gone before; / I urg’d the jarvey’s speed.
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 25 July 2/4: The same Jarvey next instituted a claim against Mr Stewart [...] for cab hire.
1859		G.A. Sala Twice Round the Clock 116: ‘Ben,’ that famous jarvey of the olden time, immortalised in the ballad of ‘Tamaroo.’.
1859		G.F. Atkinson Curry & Rice (3 edn) n.p.: But note the putting-to; would it not convulse a genuine English Jarvie to behold.
1865		G.F. Berkeley My Life & Recollections 275: The whole string of ‘jarvies’ were bumping in procession to the destination.
1876		‘Some Road Slang Terms’ in Malet Annals of the Road 393: 4. Of Coachmen Jarvey...A slow and inelegant [coachman].
1879		‘’Arry on the Road’ in Punch 9 Aug. 83/1: Our Toffs has bin took with a taste to turn hammytoor Jarvies.
1882		G.A. Sala in Living London (1883) Sept. 426: An aspiring Dublin Jarvey.
1882		A. Trumble Mysteries of N.Y. 23: [H]is fare refused to pay, and the harvey [sic] ‘took it out of his hide’.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 17 Aug. 1/4: ‘Well, sir,’ said Jarvey [...] we don’t werry well like to take a night job in the East End just now’.
1890		Sporting Times 19 Apr. 1/3: At last, having come to the End of his Vocabulary, the Vituperative Jarvey paused.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 39: Jarvey, the coach or car-driver, similar to‘cabby’.
1909		N.Z. Truth 30 Jan. 5/2: The cute Irish jarvey appeared before Beak Dyer [...] charged with demanding an unreasonable fare.
1916		‘Anzac’ On the Anzac Trail 60: [H]his game is to [...] make his bargain with the gentleman much as he would with a Paddy jarvey.
1916		Joyce Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 280: They knew the names of certain French dishes and gave orders to jarvies in highpitched provincial voices.
1925		L. Mackay Mourne Folk 18: Dandy Rogan, another popular jarvey, drove the mail-car from Newry to Kilkeel.
1934		S. Beckett More Pricks than Kicks 63: Merrion Row was a home from home for jarveys.
1942		(con. 1890s) S. O’Casey Pictures in the Hallway 245: The jarvey jumped down, swung his horse round to face the station.
1965		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Confessions 108: Jarvey, pull up here at the pub on the corner.
1981		(con. c.1920) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 95: He was a jarvey, and one evening there was great jubilation in Queen Street, when Corny was crowned King of the Jarveys.
1995		P. Boland Tales from a City Farmyard 14: Generations of my father’s family had been jarveys.
2000		F. Mac Anna Cartoon City 41: Over the traffic island past a line of jarveys seated on horse-drawn carriages.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

1831		Satirist (London) 8 May 34/3: ‘Please your Vorship,’ began coachee with a genuine Jarvey bow to the Magistrate.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 25 Dec. 2/3: A riglar out-and-out, down-the-road, up-to-a-trick-or-two, half-jock-half-jarvey coat.

3. (US) a waistcoat [the coachman’s invariably striped waistcoat].

1848

Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 316/2: Jarvey, a waistcoat.

4. a hackney coach; also attrib.

1821		W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry II 4: A rattler... is a rumbler, otherwise a jarvey... better known perhaps by the name of a hack.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 4: He was considered a crack gentleman driver amongst all his pals who could ‘tool a jervy’.
1837		‘The Wide Awake Club’ in Bentley’s Misc. Feb. 210: He drove up to the gate in a jarvey.
1865		G.F. Berkeley My Life I 275: [The] whole string of jarvies were bumping in procession to the destination, having no one in them.
1952		B. MacMahon Children of the Rainbow 139: The road had become impassable, what with jarvey-cars and caravans and gigs and other vehicles that still persisted from a bygone age.

5. any male individual.

1968

A. Burgess Enderby Outside in Complete Enderby (2002) 307: You say Rawcliffe, brad? Rawcliffe the jarvey you bid to chop?