Occupation: GARTHAR [** COMPLETED **]

[jgmiller]

On the Cheshire Parish Register Database full baptism record listing for Timothy Gregory at Burton in 1723, the occupation of the father Timothy Gregory is listed as GARTHAR.

What is a GARTHAR?

Is it somehow a phonetic spelling variation of CARTER, as in someone who carts goods to/from farms to other places, or is a garthar something else entirely?

Thank you in advance for any assistance you can offer.

[stanmapstone]

A Garth is a small piece of enclosed ground.
A fish-garth is a garth or inclosure on a river or the seashore for preserving fishes or taking them easily, and a garth-man owns or works a fish-garth. Garther is a rare name for a garthman, or in this case Garthar
Stan

[behindthefrogs]

Referring to the first part of Stan's definition a Garther can also be a yardsman responsible for herding cattle.

David

[stanmapstone]

Referring to the first part of Stan's definition a Garther can also be a yardsman responsible for herding cattle.

David

In "The Dictionary of Occupational Terms" a Garthman was a Lincolnshire term for a cattleman who had charge of stock in a Foldyard, a fold being a pen or enclosure for domestic animals, esp. sheep.

Stan

[jgmiller]

A big thank you to all the contributors with the explanation of the occupation of a GARTHAR.

Burton is a predominantly agricultural area and I suspect that there would have been numerous cattle herds ("Mary call the Cattle Home" springs immerdiately to mind), and probably few sheep if any.  It is possible that there could have been a fish enclosure nearby on the River Dee, as the area was not extensively silted as today, but I would conclude that my distant maternal relative was most probably a cattle herdsman.