sexton
noun
- church or synagogue officer charged with the maintenance of the church buildings and/or the surrounding graveyard
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈsɛk.stən/
name
- A surname originating as an occupation.
noun
Etymology: From Old French segrestien, from Medieval Latin sacristanus, based on Latin sacer (“sacred”). Doublet of sacristan.
- A church official who looks after a church building and its graveyard and may act as a gravedigger and bell ringer.
“The whole village poured out to gaze on these Asiatic princes, for such the old sexton, who had in his youth been at Moscow and Constantinople, said they were.”
“on that same night, Mr Haredale, having strongly bound his prisoner, with the assistance of the sexton, and forced him to mount his horse, conducted him to Chigwell”
- A sexton beetle.