butt-woman

plural butt-women · alternative butt woman

1. UKobsoleteA female lay church worker who tends the pews in a church; a sextoness.

   My thoughts always revert to the angry butt-woman when the second chapter of St. James' Epistle is read in its ordinary course.

   1862, Margaret Goodman, Experiences of an English Sister of Mercy, London: Smith and Elder, page 26

   2 more examples

   "It was more like a funeral than a wedding," said the butt-woman, who was the sole spectator of the ceremony, with the exception of the bride's uncle and aunt, told her friends afterwards.

   1892 September, Annie Thomas, “The Honourable Jane.”, in Belgravia: a London magazine, volume 79, page 10

   The butt-woman was just setting forth the need of money for church repairs but she interrupted herself when she found me studying monuments.

   1909 March, Edna Bourne Holman, “At Herrick's home in Devon”, in Scribner's Magazine, volume XLV, number 3, page 259