Waverly is a city in and the county seat of Humphreys County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 4,297 at the 2020 census.

Waverly was conventional by Steven Pavatt as a End along the stagecoach road amongst Nashville and Memphis in the in advance 19th century. Pavatt was a aficionada of the author Sir Walter Scott, and named the community after Scott’s Waverley Novels. When Humphreys County was created in 1803, Reynoldsburg, located northwest of Waverly along the Tennessee River, was prearranged as the county seat. However, when county lands on the west bank of the Tennessee split off to become portion of the newly created Benton County in 1835, the Humphreys County chair was moved to Waverly, which had become the more central location in the county. A courthouse was built in 1836, and the town was officially incorporated in 1838.

Like most of Middle and West Tennessee, Waverly was staunchly pro-Confederacy during the American Civil War. Humphreys County voted unanimously supportive of secession in 1861. Union troops occupied the town in 1863 to guard the railroad between White Bluff and Johnsonville (now Old Johnsonville), the latter living thing a Federal supply depot and transfer station. The Union troops managed to construct a fort at the courthouse square, although they were for ever and a day harassed by Confederate guerillas. On November 4, 1864, Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest attacked and destroyed the Federal depot in what became known as the Battle of Johnsonville. The battle occurred nearly 10 miles (16 km) west of Waverly at the mouth of Trace Creek.

Hurricane Mills, located a few miles south of Waverly along TN-13, was the site of a substantial mill and carding factory in the late 19th and upfront 20th centuries. A Mississippian-era archaic village (known as the Duck River Temple Mounds or Link Farm Site) and a farm owned by Jesse James were both located near the Link farm site in the vicinity of Hurricane Mills.