1) A measure, a cart load of hay, wood, stone, turf, etc.
1399 Et in cariagio dxlij fothers eorum lapidum per carectas a quarera usque aquam, York
1456-7 pro perquisicione de vj foder plaster, ijs, Fountains Abbey
1518 fower fowder of wood to be brought, Esholt
1558 Robert Sale shall sett yeirly upon the said ground x lod or fowthers of dunge or maynour, Tong. In a lead-mining context it represented a certain weight of smelted lead but the amount differed from one region to another and over the centuries: 1371 de novo cooperienda cum vj fothers et vj petris plumbi, York
1446-58 de precio j fodir plumbi, Fountains Abbey
1498 to be wound and weed [weighed] at the common crane of this Citie … shall … pay … for every fouder of lede vijd, York
1616 A stone is 14 l 8st is 100 weight, and 20 hundreth weight is a fudder of lead, a tunne weight or a wayne load, Brandsby. See R&J42-5.