Originally: an official appointed to assist the incumbent of an ecclesiastical parish in various duties connected with the church and its services…

= parish clerk, n. Cf. town, n. 3a. Obsolete.

= parish clerk, n.; (now also more generally) any person undertaking clerical or administrative duties for a church.

Hence, since the Reformation, applied to laymen who perform such of these offices as are retained in cathedrals, churches, or chapels. In the…

(a) a ‘singing man’ in a cathedral or collegiate church; (b) a parish clerk: see clerk, n. 2b.