Definition
A writ of right of advowson of a church. At common law, this writ lay where a person held the right of advowson — that is, the right to present a clergyman to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice — and, upon the death of the incumbent parson, a stranger had presented to the living instead. The writ was the appropriate remedy to assert and recover that right of presentation against the wrongful presenter. It belongs to the family of writs of right (rectum), which were the highest and most formal writs available at common law for the recovery of property rights, demanding an ultimate determination of title rather than merely possession.
The full Latin form is Recto de Advocatione Ecclesiae, meaning literally "right of advowson of the church." Historical sources frequently abbreviate the entry heading, but the writ's subject matter is the right of advowson itself, not the physical church or its temporalities.
Common Confusion
RECTO DE ADVOCATIONE ECCLESIAE should not be confused with the broader category of writs of right generally, nor with the quare impedit and darrein presentment, which were later, more expeditious remedies addressing the same underlying problem of disputed presentation. The writ of right of advowson was the foundational action asserting title to the advowson itself; quare impedit was a possessory remedy for the immediate disturbance of the right of presentation. In practice, quare impedit displaced the writ of right of advowson in most litigation because it was far faster and less technically demanding. A researcher encountering a disputed presentation dispute in historical records should not assume the writ of right was the vehicle used — the possessory writs were far more common in actual pleading.
RECTO DE ADVOCATIONE ECCLESIAE should also be distinguished from RECTO DE CUSTODIA TERRAE ET HAEREDIS (writ of right of ward of land and heir), which appears immediately adjacent in Black's and Rapalje & Lawrence and addresses wardship rights, not ecclesiastical presentation rights.
Why It Matters in Research
This writ is essentially a fossil of medieval English ecclesiastical and property law. It was never transplanted into American legal practice in any meaningful form, and researchers encountering it will do so almost exclusively in English common law sources, Year Books, Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium, and early English pleading records.
Several research traps are worth flagging:
First, the abbreviation problem. Historical dictionaries — including both Black's and Rapalje & Lawrence as reproduced in the source material — render this entry in truncated or corrupted form, with the heading appearing to begin mid-phrase ("CLESIÆ") due to the loss of the "RECTO DE ADVOWSON ECCLE-" prefix across a page or column break. This is a transcription artifact of early legal dictionary printing and digitization. Researchers consulting these sources should be alert to entries that appear to begin with an unexplained Latin fragment — it may be the tail end of a longer term whose head appears on a preceding page.
Second, the term advowson itself requires care in historical sources. The concept of advowson — the right of patronage over an ecclesiastical living — was deeply embedded in English feudal property law and generated its own distinct body of writs and actions. The writ of right of advowson sits at the top of that hierarchy. Understanding the writ requires understanding advowson first.
Third, because this writ was abolished along with the broader abolition of real actions and writs of right in England (Real Property Limitation Act 1833 and the Common Law Procedure Act reforms of the mid-nineteenth century), it will not appear in any post-reform English pleading materials, and certainly not in American practice. Its presence in a legal dictionary reflects the dictionaries' function as historical reference tools, not as guides to living procedure.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both Black's Law Dictionary and Rapalje & Lawrence provide substantively identical entries, each tracing the writ to Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium at folio 30, which is the standard primary reference for the writ's elements and availability at common law. Neither source provides significant doctrinal elaboration beyond identifying the triggering condition (parson dying, stranger presenting) and the right being asserted (advowson of a church).
Notably, both sources present this entry in corrupted typographic form, with the heading "CLESIÆ" representing only the final syllables of "ECCLESIÆ" after a column break, followed immediately by the definition. This is a known artifact of these dictionary editions and should be treated accordingly by researchers relying on digitized or reprinted versions.
Neither source addresses the relationship of this writ to the possessory actions (quare impedit, darrein presentment, assise of darrein presentment) that effectively supplanted it in English practice. Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium itself, and later Blackstone's Commentaries (Book III), provide richer context for understanding the hierarchy of advowson remedies.
Jurisdictional Note
This writ has no application in American law. It is a creature of English ecclesiastical and common law property practice, abolished in England by the nineteenth-century real property reform statutes. American researchers will encounter it only when working with English legal history, early colonial records drawing on English forms, or the historical common law background of advowson-related concepts.