cherisher

plural cherishers

1. Someone who cherishes something

   She was to me the 'cherisher of infancy.'

   1797, Charles and Mary Lamb, “Written on the Day of my Aunt's Funeral”, in The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb IV

   1 more example

   Sir Robert Drury was so cordial a friend that he gave to Donne and his wife a lodging rent free in his own large house in Drury Lane, 'and was also,' says Isaac Walton, 'a cherisher of his studies, and such a friend as sympathized 'with him and his, in all their joys and sorrows.'

   1891, Henry Morley, “Footnote 3”, in The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3