Definition
An interference with a patron's right to present a clerk or candidate to an ecclesiastical benefice — that is, to a church office carrying income or endowment, such as a rectorship or vicarage. The disturbance occurs when a third party hinders or obstructs the patron from exercising this right of presentation, whether by presenting a competing candidate, refusing to admit the patron's nominee, or otherwise blocking the lawful exercise of advowson rights.
The term belongs to the law of advowsons, a body of doctrine governing the private right to nominate clergy to a church living. A patron holding an advowson — the right of presentation — could bring a common law action when that right was disturbed. Disturbance of patronage was the specific injury; the advowson itself was the underlying property right.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Patronage" in contemporary English means support given by a patron, commercial custom given to a business, or political appointment of supporters to public office.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "The right of presentation to a church or ecclesiastical benefice"; also the support or countenance of a patron; condescending favor.
The legal meaning is narrower than either modern or historical common usage. In legal context, disturbance of patronage is not merely interference with favor or support — it is a technical wrong against a specific property right in English ecclesiastical law. The word "patronage" in this phrase carries its older ecclesiastical sense, now largely obsolete in American usage.
Common Confusion
Disturbance of patronage is one of several "disturbances" recognized in English common law property doctrine. Rapalje & Lawrence groups it alongside disturbance of tenure (interference with a tenant's holding) and disturbance of ways (interference with right-of-way). These are distinct wrongs with distinct remedies. A researcher encountering an undifferentiated reference to "disturbance" in historical sources should identify which subtype is intended before analyzing the applicable action or remedy.
Disturbance of patronage should also be distinguished from simony — the buying or selling of ecclesiastical offices. Simony was an ecclesiastical and criminal offense; disturbance of patronage was a civil wrong giving rise to a private action.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is essentially a relic of English ecclesiastical property law and will almost never arise in American legal research except in historical or comparative contexts. Researchers should be aware of several navigation points:
First, the term only makes practical sense within the structure of the Church of England's benefice system and the common law's treatment of advowsons as a species of real property. American courts and legislatures did not transplant this doctrine, and no parallel institution developed in United States law. Encountering this term in an American source almost certainly signals either direct quotation of English authority or discussion of colonial-era ecclesiastical arrangements.
Second, the primary research path runs through the law of advowsons, not through general disturbance or nuisance doctrine. Blackstone's Commentaries (Book III, Chapter 13) and Stephen's Commentaries on the Laws of England (Book III) are the standard authorities cited by all three source dictionaries and remain the most coherent exposition of how the action arose and what it required.
Third, because advowsons were treated as real property in English law, disturbance of patronage gave rise to a real action — specifically the quare impedit — rather than a personal action. This procedural distinction matters when reading historical case law or pleading records. The quare impedit was the standard writ compelling the disturber to show why the patron should not present.
Fourth, Crabb's Real Property (§ 2472d), cited by Burrill, offers more granular treatment of the property dimensions than the Commentaries and may be useful for researchers tracing the doctrine through property law rather than ecclesiastical law sources.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries are in close agreement: disturbance of patronage is the hindrance or obstruction of a patron's right to present a clerk to a benefice. Black's and Burrill offer nearly identical formulations, both citing Blackstone and Stephen as primary authority. Rapalje & Lawrence gives no independent definition, directing the reader to the parent entry on disturbance.
Burrill adds the Crabb citation, making it the most useful of the three for real property research. None of the dictionaries explain the procedural vehicle (quare impedit), the distinction from simony, or the historical decline of the doctrine — gaps that a researcher working beyond identification of the term will need to fill from the Commentaries or ecclesiastical law treatises directly. The consistent citation to the same two secondary sources (Blackstone Book III and Stephen Book III) across dictionaries suggests the doctrine was already being treated as a learned historical matter rather than active practice by the time these dictionaries were compiled.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Advowson; Ecclesiastical Law; Real Actions (Common Law)