Role of William Wickstead in Massey Household (1629)

[Andrew RM Hayes]

I would appreciate a second opinion as to the office occupied by William Wickstead (son of William the younger who featured in my last post). He seems to have had an important role in the household of a significant Cheshire gentry family, the Masseys of Puddington. The entry for his burial is in larger script than most others. His Cheshire will also requests the head of that house to act as his overseer. 

[Bookbox]

It looks like Clr , perhaps for Clerk. Not necessarily a clergyman, but possibly a secretarial/book-keeping role? Any similar abbreviations elsewhere in the register?

ADDED
Looking again, I'm now less certain about the middle letter, as the foot doesn't look right for l. I wonder if it's a faded k, like the k in knight in the line below, though I can't think what the word could be. Interested to see what others think.

[jim1]

It looks to me William Wickstead who be O^r (Overseer).

[Bookbox]

O^r (Overseer).

Pretty sure this is S^r (= Sir) ?

[Greensleeves]

I agree that that word is S^r  and relates to William Massey.  The word after William Wicksteed looks like ?lr,  and I am wondering if it is something like a councillor/counsellor, as previously suggested, or some similar position such as steward, bursar or suchlike, neither of which seem to fit the abbreviation!

[Andrew RM Hayes]

Thank you all for your suggestions.
I also thought that it might be Clr, meaning "clerk".
There were no other abbreviations in the pages that I scanned.
However, a previous entry in the Burton register refers to the burial, on 18th November 1618, of a clerk to Mr John, Mr George and Sir William Massie.
William first appears in the Burton register in 1622, when one of his daughters was baptized, so he could have been the deceased clerk's successor.
William's 1629 Cheshire will describes him as a "gent", rather than a clerk, so I had assumed that he was not ordained, but rather a clerk in the modern sense. There is also no record that he attended a university or took holy orders in the clergy databases.
It would be intriguing to know how he entered the Masseys' service. Wrenbury his home parish, is some distance from the Wirral. I looked, but could find no family connection, by blood or marriage, that might have brought him too their attention.
regards
Andrew

[Greensleeves]

There could have been some ancestral connection which isn't immediately evident.  In my late husband's tree he has the Alistan/Elliston family who for generations acted as Stewards to the de Vere family (Earls of Oxford) at the castle at Castle Hedingham.  Although there was no familial bond,  as far as I can see, research shows that after the Norman conquest, the Saxon Alistans threw in their lot with the Norman de Veres, and consequently continued to thrive for many centuries, despite losing their lands after 1066.