« Reply #43 on: Friday 22 February 08 18:11 GMT (UK) »
Hmmmm!
Certainly does look like Sextoness!! This is defined as a female sexton, or wife of a sexton. Maybe her husband was a sexton in his spare time?
A Sexton was responsible for the care and upkeep of the church and sometimes for ringing the bells and digging graves - still doesn't seem a very likely job for a woman in the 1860s.

Looking through various census returns for 1861 (Google search) reveals a number of widows listed with this occupation!

Bill
Banks, Beer, Bowes, Castle, Cloak, Coachworth, Dixon, Farr, Golder, Graves, Hicks, Hogbin, Holmans, Marsh, Mummery, Nutting, Pierce, Rouse, Sawyer, Sharp, Snell, Willis: mostly in East Kent.
Ey, Sawyer: London
Evans: Ystradgynlais, Wales
Snell: Snettisham, Norfolk
Knight, Burgess, Ellis: Hampshire
Purdy: Ireland/Canada/Durham/Pennsylvania
McCann: Ireland
Morrow: Pennsylvania
Sparnon: any
Beers, Heath, Conyers, Miller, Russell, Larson, Clark, Sibert, Hopper, Reinhart: USA