ADVOWSON

6 definitions found across Law Mind sources

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ADVOWSONAuthored
The Law Mind • 1089 words
Definition
The right to present a qualified candidate to a bishop for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice. In English ecclesiastical law, the holder of this right — called the patron — could nominate a fit person to fill a church living when it fell vacant. The bishop retained authority to admit or reject the nominee on grounds of fitness; the patron's right was one of presentation, not appointment. The relationship was proprietary: advowsons were treated as incorporeal hereditaments, could be bought and sold, devised by will, and were subject to litigation in the common law courts.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "The right to present a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church office." Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "The right of presenting to a vacant benefice or living in the church. [Originally, the relation of a patron (advocatus) or protector of a benefice, and thus privileged to nominate or present to it.]" The common definitions here are unusually close to the legal ones, but researchers should note the gap in proprietary weight. Ordinary language treats advowson as a right in the abstract; the legal term carries full property significance — the right was heritable, alienable, and litigable as real property at common law, a dimension the dictionary definitions do not convey.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES Advowson presentative: The patron presents a candidate directly to the bishop. The bishop retains the power of admission but cannot substitute another candidate. This was the predominant form. Advowson collative: Where the bishop is himself the patron, the two-step process (presentation and institution) collapses into one act called collation. The bishop collates directly to the living. Advowson appendant: An advowson attached to a manor and passing with it on conveyance, unless specifically severed by express grant. Advowson in gross: An advowson held independently of any manor, as a stand-alone property right capable of separate conveyance. Mediate vs. immediate advowson: A mediate advowson exists where an intermediate patron stands between the ultimate patron and the bishop; an immediate advowson gives the patron direct presentation rights.
Why It Matters in Research
Advowson is essentially extinct as an operative legal concept in the United States and was formally curtailed in England by the Benefices Act 1898 and further legislation in the twentieth century. Researchers encounter it almost exclusively in historical sources — medieval land records, Chancery proceedings, manor court rolls, and early common law cases — where it appears with frequency. Several research traps are worth flagging. First, advowson litigation moved between ecclesiastical and common law courts depending on the nature of the dispute. Disputes over the right of presentation (the property question) were triable at common law; disputes over the fitness of the presentee were ecclesiastical. This jurisdictional split means relevant records are scattered across court systems, and researchers should not assume that common law reporters hold the full picture. Second, the appendant/in gross distinction matters enormously for tracing title. An advowson appendant transferred silently with the manor and will not necessarily appear in deeds as a separately named item. Researchers examining manor conveyances must be alert to the possibility that advowson rights traveled with the land without explicit mention. Third, Bouvier notes the concept of lapse: if the patron failed to present within six months of a vacancy, the right to present passed to the ordinary (bishop), and if the ordinary failed, it passed further up the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Records of lapse proceedings are a distinct body of sources, often in diocesan archives rather than common law courts. Fourth, the term connects directly to the concept of simony — the prohibited buying and selling of ecclesiastical offices. The line between the lawful sale of an advowson (permissible) and the sale of a next presentation to a known incumbent (closer to simony, and restricted) was legally contested and appears in both ecclesiastical and common law materials.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries are in agreement on the core definition and show no meaningful divergence: all identify advowson as the right of presentation to an ecclesiastical benefice. Black's (both editions), Bouvier, Anderson, and Rapalje & Lawrence converge on this formulation, with Rapalje & Lawrence adding the useful Norman French (avowesoun) and Medieval Latin (advocatio) lineage tracing the term to advocatus — the patron or protector bound to defend the rights of the church. Bouvier is the most practically useful of the historical sources for researchers, adding the lapse doctrine, the concept of usurpation (presentation by one without right), and the note that advowsons come in different kinds — though his entry is truncated in the available source. Black's (2nd ed.) references Blackstone (2 Bl. Comm. 21) and Coke on Littleton (Co. Litt. 119b, 120a), the two foundational common law treatments; researchers needing doctrinal depth should proceed directly to those sources. What the historical dictionaries collectively underemphasize is the property law architecture: advowson's status as an incorporeal hereditament, its behavior in conveyancing, and the common law actions (particularly the writ of quare impedit) developed to vindicate advowson rights. These dimensions require moving beyond dictionary entries into treatise and case law sources.
Jurisdictional Note
Advowson has no meaningful application in American law. The First Amendment's disestablishment principle eliminated the legal framework necessary for the concept to operate. Researchers working in American materials will encounter advowson only in historical contexts, comparative law scholarship, or in colonial-era records predating independence where English ecclesiastical law still had purchase.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Ecclesiastical Law (primary) Law Mind Encyclopedia — Incorporeal Hereditaments Law Mind Encyclopedia — Benefices and Church Livings
Related Terms
Benefice — the church living or office to which presentation is made Patron / Patronage — the holder of the advowson right and the relationship it creates Presentation — the formal act of nominating a candidate to the bishop Institution — the bishop's act of admitting the presented candidate Collation — institution without prior presentationwhere bishop holds both roles Lapse — the transfer of presentation right to a superior authority upon patron's failure to act Usurpation — wrongful presentation by one lacking the advowson right Quare impedit — the common law writ used to vindicate a disturbed advowson right Incorporeal hereditament — the property category to which advowson belongs Simony — the prohibited traffic in ecclesiastical offices; the boundary concept for advowson alienation Manor — the land unit to which an advowson appendant is attached
ADVOWSONmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
In English ecclesiastical law. The right of presentation to a church or ecclesiastical benefice; the right of pre- senting a fit person to the bishop, to be by him admitted and instituted to a certain benefice within the diocese, which has be- come vacant. 2 Bl. Comm. 21; Co. Litt. 1196, 120a. The person enjoying this right is called the "patron" (patronus) of the · church, and was formerly termed “advoca- tus," the advocate or defender, or in En- out any presentation to the bishop, or in- stitution by him. 2 Bl. Comm. 23; 1 Crabb, Real Prop. p. 131, § 119. Advowson in gross. An advowson sep- arated from the manor, and annexed to the person. 2 Bl. Comm. 22; Co. Litt. 120; 1 Crabb, Real Prop. p. 130, § 118; 3 Steph. Comm. 116. Advowson presentative. The usual kind of advowson, where the patron has the right of presentation to the bishop, or ordinary, and moreover to demand of him to institute his clerk, if he finds him canonically quali- fied. 2 Bl. Comm. 22; 1 Crabb, Real Prop. p. 131, § 119. The ADVOWTRY, or ADVOUTRY. offense, by an adulteress, of continuing to live with the man with whom she committed the adultery. Cowell; Termes de la Ley. ÆDES. Lat. In the civil law. A house, dwelling, place of habitation, whether in the city or country. Dig. 30, 41, 5. In the coun- try everything upon the surface of the soil passed under the term "ades." Du Cange; Calvin. ÆDIFICARE. Lat. In civil and old English law. To make or build a house; to erect a building. Dig. 45, 1, 75, 7. Edificare in tuo proprio solo non licet quod alteri noceat. 3 Inst. 201. To build upon your own land what may injure another is not lawful. A proprietor of land has no right to erect an edifice on his own ground, interfering with the due enjoyment
ADVOWSONmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
A right of presentation to a church or benefice. He who possesses this right is called the patron or advocate. When there is no patron, or he neglects to exercise his right within six months, it is called a lapse, and a title is given to the ordinary to collate to a church: when a presentation is made by one who has no right, it is called a usurpation. Advowsons are of different kinds; as ad- vowson appendant, when it depends upon a manor, etc.; advowson in gross, when it belongs to a person and not to a manor; ad- vowson presentative, where the patron pre- sents to the bishop; advowson donative, where the king or patron puts the clerk into possession without presentation; ad- vowson collative, where the bishop himself is a patron; advowson of the moiety of the church, where there are two several patrons and two incumbents in the same church; a moiety of advowson, where two must join the presentation of one incumbent: advow- son of religious houses, that which is vested in the person who founded such a house. 2 Bla. Com. 21; Mirehouse, Advowsons; Comyns, Dig. Advowson, Quare Impedit; Bacon, Abr. Simony; Burns, Eccl. Law. See 2 Poll. & Maitl, 185.
ADVOWSONmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888
-NORMAN-FRENCH: avowesoun, (Britt. 222a; Mireh. Advows. 6; Du Cange, s. v. Advocatus); MEDIEVAL-LATIN: advocatio, apparently from advocatus, the patron or person who was bound to defend and protect the rights of the church. and children, creditors most of all. Æquum et bonum est lex legum' That which is equal and good is the law of laws ÆS ALIENUM. -A civil law term signifying a debt; the property of another; borrowed money, as distinguished from as suum, one's own money. The right of presenting to a rectory, vicarage or other ecclesiastical benefice whenever it is vacant. (See PRESENTATION.) It may belong to a private person, and or a bishop or other dignitary, or to the crown. An advowson belonging to the bishop of the diocese is technically the right of collation; some advowsons are called donatives, and a few (such as benefices attached to cathedrals) are elective; an ordinary advowson is sometimes called, by way of distinction, a presentative advowson. An advowson is incorporeal hereditament, and is either appendant or in gross. Phillim. Ecc. L. 328; 2 Bl. Com. 21; Co. Litt. 17 b, 119 a. an ADVOWSON, (devise of). 3 Brod. & Β. 36. ADVOWTRY, or ADVOUTRY.- The offense, by an adulteress, of continuing to live with the man with whom she committed the adultery. Cowell; Termes de la Ley. Edificare in tuo proprio solo non licet quod alteri noceat: It is not permitted to build upon one's own land that which may be iujurious to another. Edificatum solo, solo cedit: That which is built upon the land goes with the land. ÆSTIMATIO CAPITIS.-Fines paid for killing persons, according to their degree estimation of their heads, orquality, by dained by King Athelstane. Æstimatio præterit delicti ex postremo facto nunquam crescit: The subsequent fact. weight of a past offence is never increased by a ÆTATE PROBANDA. - A writ, formerly in use in England, commanding the sheriff to summon twelve men, to be before commissioners appointed, to ascertain whether the king's tenant, holding in chief by chivalry, had arrived at full age to take his lands into his own hands. AFFECT, (parol evidence not to, written instrument). 1 Cox Ch. 407. AFFECT HIS ESTATE BY ALIENATION, CHANGE, &c., (not to, in a will). Coop. C. С. 259. stitution). 9 Wheat. (U.S.) 855. AFFECTING, (foreign ministers, in U. S. Con11 So. Car. 122. AFFECTING THE JUDGMENT, (in a statute). Affectio tua nomen imponit operi tuo: The affection of a person gives a name to his work. AFFECTION.-A species of pledge or mortgage to secure the payment of money or the performance of some duty or service. -Techn Dict.
ADVOWSONn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
The right of presenting to a vacant benefice or living in the church. [Originally, the relation of a patron (advocatus) or protector of a benefice, and thus privileged to nominate or present to it.]
advowsonnoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
The right to present a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church office.

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