This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'at the wear.' Anglo-Saxon wer, a dam, a fence, a wear or weir; v. Ware.

John de la Were, Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Robert de la Were, Gloucestershire, ibid.

1665. Married — Thomas Weare and Isabella Wilkinson: St. James, Clerkenwell.

Of Norman origin from one or other of the places named Vere in Calvados, Manche, Eure-et-Loire, and Oise. The word was introduced into Normandy by the Norsemen from their own ver, a station, as in fiskiver, a fishing station, a word etymologically akin to Old English weir, wear, a dam. Ralph or Radulphus de Ver is perhaps the first of the name recorded in Scotland. As Ralph de Ver he was taken prisoner at Alnwick along with William the Lion in 1174 (Bain, I, p. 174). He witnessed a charter by King William "de decimis episcopatus" of Moray between 1174-84 (REM., 2), and as Radulph de Veir or Veyre, within the same period, he gave a bovate of land in Sprowestun, Roxburgh, to the Abbey of Kelso, his brother Robert being one of the witnesses (Kelso, p. 177). The same, or perhaps a succeeding Radulph de Ver or de Uer, witnessed a little before 1204 a grant to the Abbey of Arnbroath (RAA., I, 11), and before 1214 another charter by King William (Panmure, a, 126). The Weirs of Blackwood, Lanarkshire, claim or claimed to be descended from this Radulph though they only appear in record in 1400, when they obtained the lands of Blackwood. Richard Wer of Lanarkshire rendered homage in 1296 (Bain, II, p. 206). In the same year a writ was directed to the sheriff of Edinburgh ordering him to restore to Thomas le Wer his forfeited lands (ibid., 832). Between 1398 and 1400 Rothald or Rotaldus de Were, bailie of Lesmahagow, had a charter from Patrick, abbot of Kelso, of the lands of Blackwodd, Mossinyning, and Durgundreston (Kelso, 524), and in 1497 Abbot Robert granted Rogerhill and Brownhill to Robert Weyr for services rendered (Morton, p. 148). As vassals of the abbots of Kelso the Weirs held extensive lands in Lesmahagow, and George Were and Thomas Were were jurors on an inquisition made at Lanark, 1432 (RAA., II, 65). George Were had a remission for his share in burning the town of Dunbertane in 1489 (Lennox, II, p. 132). William Veir, post in Aberdeen, 1012, received payment for his services (SCM., V, p. 92). Some of the Macnairs in Cowal have Englished their name Weir, and the name in Dumbartonshire may be an Englishing of Mac Arnhaoir, 'son of the officer. This last name has been extinct for about two hundred years, and the translation into English may have had something to do with its disappearance. Major Weir, the 'Bowhead Saint,' burnt for witchcraft and other crimes, in Edinburgh, 1670, was one of the celebrities of this name, and in 1794 another Weir, also in Edinburgh, had a museum of natural history at 16 Princes Street. The Caithness pronunciation is Whier, and on a tombstone in Temple churchyard, Midlothian, the name is spelled Wire. The names of James Quhair in Scheilgreen, 1638, and Marion Wayre in Littleciyde, parish of Crawford-Douglas (Lanark CR.), may be other spellings of the name. Vere 1709, Wair 1660, Ware 1632, Weare 1608, Weer 1650, Weire 1504, Werr 1501, Weyir 1599, Weyr 1528; Uair, Wir.

(English) 1 belonging to Ware; or Dweller at the Weir or Dam [Middle English war(e, wer(e, Old English wer—Low Ger. ware, a weir] Henry de Ware.—Hundred Rolls Ralph de la Ware.—Hundred Rolls Ware, Herts, was Waras (a pl. form) in Domesday-Bk.

2 Wary, Astute, Prudent [Middle English war(e, Old English wœr] Thom’ le Ware.—Charter-Rolls, A.D. 1199-1200.

Ant in werre [war] war ant wys.—Death of King Edw. I., 1. 14.

O verray fooles, nyce and blynd ben ye! Ther n’is nat oon can war by other be! Chaucer, Trail. & Cris., i. 202-3.

What man so wise, what earthly witt so ware...?—Spenser, Faerie Queene, I. vii. 1.

Cp. Warr(e.

Two English families of this name settled in Co. Dublin and Co. Cork in the sixteenth century.

MIF 239

(English) One who came from Ware (dam or fish trap), in Hertfordshire; dweller near the dam.

A town in co. Herts; also an old orthography of weir, a dam in a river. See Weir and Wear.

The Weirs of Lesmahago, Blackwood, &c., in Lanarkshire, claim descent from the great baronial family of De Vere, having been founded in Scotland by Baltredus de Vere, in the reign of Malcolm IV., about the middle of the twelfth century. From documents quoted in Chambers' Caledonia, it appears that the name Vere, or Weir, was by no means uncommon among the Norman settlers in Scotland, in that century.

Local. A town in Hertfordshire, England, so named from the wear in the river Lee, at that place.

From Ware, a market town and parish co. Herts.

(English), Enclosure, Wier or Dam, Fish-pond. In Holland, “waard, weert, weer,” formerly signified a fortress or castle which served to ward off an enemy; also a protection of any sort, but particularly a dike against water. Waard, q. v., now signifies a polder, or drained lake; also a drake and a Landlord.

A location name in Devon, Hertfordshire.