kirk-master, -maister north. dial.
1. In northern English, A churchwarden.
| 1429 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) I. 417 Item to the kyrkmasters a nobill. 1512 Churchw. Acc. Wigtoft, Linc. (Nichols 1797) 205 Ye cayrke maysters of Wygtoft. 1674–91 Ray N.C. Words 41 Kyrkmaster, Churchwarden. 1876 Mid. Yorksh. Gloss. s.v. Kirk, Kirkmaister..often heard from old Mid-Yorkshire people. |
† 2. Sc. a. ‘A deacon in the church, one who has the charge of ecclesiastical temporalities’ (Jam.). b. The deacon of an incorporated trade: see deacon 3. Obs. rare.
| 1505 in Pennecuik Blue Blanket (1756) 44 Compeired..the Kirk-Master and Brether of the Surgeons and Barbaris. 1522 in Charters of St. Giles, Edin. (Bann.) 213–16 Kirk⁓maisters of the confrary and altare of the haly blude. 1572 Sc. Acts Jas. VI (1814) III. 76* Thair was not Kirkmaisteris or Deaconis appointit in the Parochinnis to ressaue the taxatioun appointit. |