Has anyone come across a starcher as an occupation?

[Elwyn Soutter]

A heckler or heckling is a process in linen making, so that places your ancestor fairly firmly in that field of employment.

[Skoosh]

Doris, Robert Burns father sent him away to Irvine to learn the Heckling, that & Scutching the fibres were very stourie jobs & bad for the lungs. Fortunately the heckling shed went on fire to the delight of the poet and his heckling days were over! 

Skoosh

[Doris49]

Ooh, that’s interesting - for some reason I thought a heckler was some kind of travelling salesman!  It all makes sense now.  Love that story about Rabbie - looks like he had a lucky escape!

 

[Maiden Stone]

Ooh, that’s interesting - for some reason I thought a heckler was some kind of travelling salesman! 

You may have been thinking of hawker or huckster.

[Annette7]

Just in 1851 alone, there were 238 people listed with the occupation of 'Starcher' - almost all were in Scotland.

Annette

[stanmapstone]

A Hackle is a comb with coarsely set teeth. A Hackler Machine is one in which short and weak fibres are removed by the action of steel pins. There were various types of Hackler, (or Heckler); Brush Fibre; Textile Mill; Hair; Horse Hair; Manilla Hemp; Whalebone Bristles etc.
A Fibre Hackler, aka fibre dresser, fibre heckler, comber (fibre) hackled or combed fibre by passing it over a long toothed hackle, or card, of coarsely set wire teeth, to remove impurities and tangles.

Stan

[Doris49]

Thanks everyone.  I think I must have been thinking about a hawker rather than a heckler.  I really appreciate your help with this - it all makes sense now!

[Skoosh]

The iron contraption in a stable-wall for horses to draw their hay-ration through is also called a heck! 

Skoosh.

[Mowsehowse]

Thank you all you wonderful Rootschatters!
I love this place.