Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a chaise or light carriage; cite 1837 refs to a cart used for selling fish.

1764		Foote Mayor of Garrat in Works (1799) I 173: Mr. Sneak keeps my sister a chay.
1771		Foote Maid of Bath in Works (1799) II 203: Major Rackett, in a chay and four.
1793		J. O’Keeffe World in a Village (1794) 10: I want my chay; so put that hamper of wine, and the medecince in the little cart.
1797		T. Morton Cure for the Heart Ache in Inchbold (1808) XXV 10: The farmers so consated, drive about in their chay-carts.
1805		J. Davis Post Captain (1813) 228: If ever you call me extravagant again, as you did coming along in the chay, I’ll give you no rest for a month.
1822		D. Carey Life in Paris 350: It beat the one in Kew-Gardens, where they used to go in a chay of a Sunday-time.
1827		Egan Anecdotes of the Turf, the Chase etc. 202: Such a horse would not disgrace the first gemmen’s shay in the land.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford III 119: You objects to go in a cart [...] and when I puts myself out of the way to obleedge you with a shay, you slangs I for it!
1830		Owl (NY) 14 Aug. n.p.: Or chance of a tumble, / As in chay, gig or whisky .
1837		‘Now!’ in Rum Ti Tum! in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 169: You’ll ne’er find such another slap fish-shay and costermongers!
1838		‘Alfred Crowquill’ Seymour’s Humourous Sketches (1866) 99: So he was dumb, silent and glum, as the small ‘chay’ he drew, / And ventured no replies / [...] ‘’Tis quite a fag, this “chay” to drag’.
1840		R.B. Peake Devil In London II i: I have borrowed a chay-cart and the tallow chandler’s mare.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 11 Mar. 2/3: With his swell four-wheeled chay, / His liveries too, buff and green.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 18 Mar. 3/3: The Flashy Linendraper and her von os shay.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 42: Mrs. Fleeceall driven by her dear Fleecy [...] in a double-bodied one-horse ‘chay’.
1853		Bell’s Life in Sydney 4 June 3/2: One horse shays, saddle horses.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 26: The proprietors have driven out in their light ‘shay’ traps to drink tea at Hampstead, Kew, or Harrow.
1861		Bell’s Life in Sydney 20 Apr. 3/2: Taking an airing in the ‘vun os shay’ of the first named gentleman.
1865		R.S. Surtees Facey Romford’s Hounds 166: ’Hut, it’s only the missus,’ said Dirtiest of the Dirty, who had hoped to see a fine chay.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Innocents at Home 422: [pic. caption] The ‘One-Horse Shay’ Out-done.
1885		‘’Arry on the Merry Month of May’ Punch 16 May 229/1: It is all very well, on a Sunday, for jest arf a dozen or so / To take a chay-cart down to Epsom, and cut down the May as yer go.
1891		Chevalier & Crook [perf. Albert Chevalier] ‘The Coster’s Serenade’ 🎵 You ain’t forgotten ’ow we drove that day / Down to the Welsh ’Arp, in my donkey shay.
1917		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘Done for the Double’ Three Elephant Power 132: He told him that the pony belonged to a Methodist clergyman, who used to drive him in a ‘shay’.
1972		(con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 159: He expected it to disintegrate at any instant like the poet’s one-hoss shay.