sexton
(ˈsɛkstən)
Forms: α. 4–5 segerstone, 4–6 -ane, 6 -en, (sequestern, segerson), 6–7 segerston, 7 seggerston; 6 sagar-, sacarston, 6–7 sagerston. β. 5 secristeyn, -ane, -oun, sekyrsteyn, 6 secri-, secra-, secrestan. γ. 4 sekesteyn, 4–6 sexteyn(e, -eine, (4 -eyene, -ein, 5 -een, cexteyne, 6 cyxten, seixten), 5–6 sextayn(e, -ene, 5–7 sexten, (5 sex(e)sten, 6 sextine, 7 -aine, -an, -in, sixeteene), 6– sexton; 6 saxten, 7 saxton.
[a. AF. segerstaine, = OF. segrestein, secrestein, -in, etc. (whence med.L. segrestanus), semi-popular ad. med.L. sacristānus sacristan (of which this word is a doublet). The trisyllabic (α and β) forms are almost entirely confined to northern texts; cf. the early quots. s.v. sacristan.]
1. A church officer having the care of the fabric of a church and its contents, and the duties of ringing the bells and digging graves.
In early use often = the sacristan in a religious house, cathedral, etc., having charge of the vestments, sacred vessels, relics, and the like. In popular use from the 16th c. usually = bell-ringer and grave-digger.
| α [1330 Rolls of Parlt. II. 47/2 Benefices appurtenantz al Segerstaine d'Everwik.] 1391 Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 110 In salario Johannis Segerstane mundantis ecclesiam in le flore ejusdem, item parietes et fenestras vitreas ejusdem. 1537 Whalley Abbey Inv. (P.R.O.), The sequestern that had the keping of al the seid copes. 1546 Yorksh. Chantry Surv. (Surtees) II. 353 Yerlie to the segezstane [read seger-] and belman, iiijs. vj{supd}. Ibid. 530 In the saide collegiate churche bee..fower segersons. 1637 Churchw. Acc. Pittington, etc. (Surtees) 100 For the seggerston, 3s. |
| 1575–6 Durham Depos. (Surtees) 280 Being..sagarston of the same church 20 yeres togither. 1597 Churchw. Acc. Pittington, etc. (Surtees) 127 Item the sacarston for his fourth quarter's wages, xij d. 1687 Ibid. 255 That John Riddam shall make and assist the sagerston to make graves. |
| β 14.. Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 680/36 Hic sacrista, a secristoun. 1463 Bury Wills (Camden) 26 To the Secristeyn and to the Priour of Dusgylde. 1483 Cath. Angl. 327/2 A Secristane; vbi Sacristane. 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge ii. 1588 Werburge appered to the secristan alone. 1537 Aberdeen Reg. (1844) I. 151 Quhen thai ar warnit be the secrestanis seruand, or him self. Ibid., Gyf the secrastan preevis nocht his warning. |
| γ 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 11093 A nyȝt, whan þe sekesteyn yn bede was leyd, Hym þoȝt [etc.]. 13.. St. Alexius (Cott. MS.) 192 That Images spake, þat was so bryght, to the sexteyene vppon a nyght. c 1386 Chaucer Monk's Prol. 48 Thou art som Officer Som worthy sexteyn or som Celerer. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 67/2 Cexteyne [edd. 1508, 1516 cyxten], sacrista. 1463 Bury Wills (Camden) 17 Y⊇ Sexteyn of y⊇ chirche to haue..xij d. for his rynggyng and his mete. 1498 in Somerset Med. Wills (1901) 363 The said cruetts and paxebrede to be in the kepyng of the Sexten of the said priorie. a 1539 in Archæologia XLVII. 56 That the president of your religion or sextene kepe them [sc. church keys]. 1581 G. Pettie tr. Guazzo's Civ. Conv. iii. (1586) 168 b, As a sextine said, a man cannot carie the crosse, and ring the bells altogether. 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden O, [The] continuall crashing of sextens spades against dead mens bones. 1602 Shakes. Ham. v. i. 177, I haue bin sixeteene heere, man and Boy thirty yeares. 1624 Bedell Lett. xi. 140 As if all that are made Priests among you were Psalmists, Sextens, Readers, Exorcists, Torch-bearers, Subdeacons, and Deacons before. 1638 in Legg Clerk's Bk. (1903) 99 Whether your Parish Clark or Sexton hath had due regard to the Ornaments of your Church. 1708 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. ii. vii. (1755) 71 Where the Office of the Clerk and Sexton are distinct, the Minister chooses the former, the people the latter. 1766 Blackstone Comm. I. 395 Parish clerks and sextons are also regarded by the common law, as persons who have freeholds in their offices. 1826 Hood Faithless Sally Brown 67 They went and told the sexton, and The sexton toll'd the bell. 1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt I. i. 18 The sexton waited in the belfry ready to set the one bell in joyful agitation just at the right moment. |
| 1593 in Legg Clerk's Bk. (1903) 81 And also that the same Saxten shall..rynge the fowerthe Bell for a daye Bell. 1696 Churchw. Acc. Pittington, etc. (Surtees) 260 If the said saxton be negligent therein, he shal hereby incurr the forfeiture of his place. |
† b. Applied to the pope's sacristan.
Obs.| 1667 P. A. Acc. Pope Alex. VII, etc. 25 The Sandals were taken up by the hand of the Lord Sexton. 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v., The Office of Sexton of the Pope's Chapel is particularly affixed to the Order of the Hermits of Saint Augustin: He is generally a Bishop... He takes the Title of Prefect of the Pope's Sacristy. |
† c. transf. Applied to custodians of heathen temples, etc.; a keeper, warden.
Obs.| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis iv. 78 Seixten of Hesperides Sinagog. 1603 Florio Montaigne ii. xii. (1632) 298 Varro..writeth, that Hercules his Sextaine [etc.]. 1606 Holland Sueton. 39 The warden and Sextaine of that ground or soyle, which Augustus of happy memory touched first. |
d. fig.| 1502 Arnolde Chron. 61/1 O tho most noble bishop..thou art y⊇ clere lyght of thy feyth & y⊇ sexten of y⊇ crysten relygion. 1595 Shakes. John iii. i. 324 Old Time the clocke setter, y{supt} bald sexton Time. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1150 A Sextaine [orig. µυσταγωγός], who leadeth by the hand those that are professed in some religion, shewing unto them all the holy reliques and sacred ceremonies. 1867 Baker Nile Trib. i. (1872) 7 The usual sextons were the crows. |
2. = sextoness,
sacristan 2.
| c 1400 Rule St. Benet (Verse) 1472 The Priores, & oþer nane, Aw for to ches a segerstane To ring þe bels in right aray. c 1440 Jacob's Well 271 A nunne þat hyȝte Beatrix, sexteyn of here hows. c 1450 in Aungier Syon (1840) 284 Sche that is sexteyne moste ordeyn that the awter in the sustres quyer be honestly arayed. c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 780/16 Hic et hec secrista, a sekyrsteyn. |
3. A sexton beetle.
| 1885 Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888) II. 385 Necrophorus... These beetles are often called sextons or grave-diggers. |
4. attrib. and
Comb.:
sexton beetle, a beetle of the genus
Necrophorus; a burying beetle.
| 1839 G. Darley Nepenthe ii. 31 Floods of dust..Heaped o'er thee by the sexton winds! 1840 Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 516 Necrophorus, Fabr... The instinctive habits which these insects possess of burying small quadrupeds, has caused them to be named Sexton, or Burying Beetles. 1854 A. Adams, etc. Man. Nat. Hist. 195 Sexton-Beetles (Blapsidæ). 1891 Meredith One of Our Conq. xli, That worm-like thread of voice [of a dying woman] came up to him still from sexton-depths. |