Etymology Dictionary

KERSEY,  coarse woollen cloth.  (E.)    In Shak. L. L. L. v. 2. 413.   The word is certainly English, and the same word as the personal name Kersey; perhaps named from Kersey, 3 miles from Hadleigh, in the S. of Suffolk, where a woollen trade was once carried on.   A little weaving still goes on at Hadleigh.   β. The usual pretence, that the cloth came from Jersey, and was named after it, is a pure fiction; there is nothing to shew that Jersey was ever called Kersey, and the 'corruption' from j to k is phonetically impossible.   I find that the island was already called Jersey in a charter of Edward III, cited in Falle's Account of Jersey, 1694.   The place of the manufacture of kersey is now the North of England, but it was once made in the South (Phillip's Dict.)   γ. The F. carizé, 'kersie' (Cot.), Du. karsaai, Swed. kersing, are mere corruptions of the E. word [†]

ADDENDA

Palsgrave has 'Carsey clothe, cresy.'   This is an earlier example; and helps to shew that Kersey is short for Kersey cloth.