Definition of "favorer"

Of personage hee was tall and mightie […] , in wit & memorie verie perfect: of suche maiestie tempered with humanitie, as best became so noble & high an estate: a great fauorer of learning, as he that was not ignorant of good letters himselfe, and for his greate magnificence and liberalitie, his renoune was spread through the whole world.

1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, page 1612

[…] by the semblanceOf their white flags display’d, they bring us peace,And come to us as favourers, not as foes.

c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon, […], published 1609, [Act I, scene 4]

Locke, whom there is no reason to suspect of being a favourer of idleness or libertinism, has advanced, that whoever hopes to employ any part of his time with efficacy and vigour, must allow some of it to pass in trifles.

1751 January 22, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, volume 3, number 89, page 161

I love it not the less because it has been little understood, and superficially judged by the common herd. It was not meant for them. I love it not the more, because it has found enthusiastic favourers amongst the Few.

1845, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni, London: Chapman & Hall, 1853, Dedicatory Epistle, First prefixed to the Edition of 1845, p. vi

I’m no missionary, nor missionary lover; I’m no Kanaka, nor favourer of Kanakas—I’m just a trader; I’m just a common, low-down, God-damned white man and British subject, the sort you would like to wipe your boots on.

1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Beach of Falesá”, in Island Nights' Entertainments‎, London: Cassell, published 1893, page 66