Definition
A resignation bond is a bond given by a person appointed to an ecclesiastical benefice (the "presentee") to the patron who nominated them, binding the presentee to resign the benefice either upon demand at any time (a general resignation bond) or upon some specified condition — most commonly, whenever the patron should require it, or in favor of a named person or persons. The bond thus gave the patron a contractual mechanism to reclaim the living after having conveyed it, ensuring the patron's future influence or family interest in the benefice could be enforced through a legal obligation rather than informal expectation.
Resignation bonds belong exclusively to English ecclesiastical law. They have no direct equivalent in American law, which has no system of private patronage over church livings of the kind established under the Church of England.
---
Common Confusion
Resignation bonds are not suretyship bonds, performance bonds, or any instrument in the modern commercial or construction sense. The word "bond" here refers to a personal obligatory instrument under seal — the older legal usage — rather than a financial guarantee supported by a surety. A researcher encountering "resignation bond" in a historical ecclesiastical or equity source should not cross-reference commercial surety bond doctrine; the legal regime governing these instruments was entirely ecclesiastical and equitable in character.
---
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Two forms were recognized:
General resignation bond: Bound the presentee to resign whenever the patron demanded, without restriction as to time, person, or circumstance.
Special (or particular) resignation bond: Bound the presentee to resign in favor of a specified person or class of persons — typically a family member of the patron — upon demand or upon the occurrence of a named event.
---
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will encounter resignation bonds almost exclusively in three contexts: English ecclesiastical law treatises and digests, Chancery equity reports, and Parliamentary debates and reform literature from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The doctrine shifted dramatically during this period, and the status of a resignation bond in any given source depends heavily on its date.
Prior to the landmark decisions of the late eighteenth century, resignation bonds — both general and special — were generally treated as enforceable obligations. Courts of equity were prepared to compel resignation on the strength of such bonds, and the practice was widespread among patrons seeking to protect family reversionary interests in livings.
The law reversed sharply following Bishop of London v. Ffytche (House of Lords, 1783), in which the Lords held that a general resignation bond was simoniacal and void as contrary to ecclesiastical law and public policy. Simony — the buying and selling of ecclesiastical offices — was the controlling doctrine: a bond that subjected the spiritual office of a benefice to the private commercial or family interest of a patron was treated as an impermissible trafficking in holy orders. After Ffytche, general resignation bonds became legally unenforceable.
The status of special resignation bonds (in favor of named persons) remained contested for some period, with some authority supporting their enforceability as less corruptive of the benefice system. Parliament ultimately intervened through the Benefices Act 1898 and predecessor legislation, which regulated and ultimately restricted the practice. Gibson's Codex Juris Ecclesiastici Anglicani and Phillimore's Ecclesiastical Law are the foundational secondary sources for the doctrine as it stood before and after Ffytche.
A researcher using Rapalje & Lawrence or other American digests should note that these sources summarize English ecclesiastical law as a matter of historical completeness; the doctrine never took root in American jurisdictions, which severed the legal connection between civil courts and church patronage at the founding.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence define the resignation bond succinctly and accurately: "a bond given by a presentee to a benefice, binding himself to resign the benefice either within a certain time, or indefinitely, whenever the patron should require it." The entry correctly identifies both the general and special forms and notes the critical shift wrought by Bishop of London v. Ffytche, citing Gibson's Codex and Phillimore's Ecclesiastical Law as its authorities — both standard and reliable sources for this area. The Rapalje & Lawrence entry is compressed, as one would expect in an American dictionary treating purely English ecclesiastical doctrine, but it captures the essential legal transformation accurately.
What historical American dictionaries characteristically omit is any extended treatment of the equity proceedings by which these bonds were enforced or challenged before Ffytche, and the nuanced post-Ffytche case law on whether special bonds survived the general condemnation of the practice. For those questions, researchers must go directly to the English ecclesiastical law sources.
---
Jurisdictional Note
Resignation bonds are a doctrine of English ecclesiastical law with no American application. They presuppose the system of church patronage — the right of a lay or ecclesiastical patron to present a candidate to a bishop for institution to a benefice — which has no legal counterpart in American church-state relations. American researchers will encounter the term only in historical sources, comparative legal texts, or English law materials.
---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Insurance Law Encyclopedia: Surety Bonds — Performance, Payment, and Bid Bonds (Cross-Reference to Construction) [insurance_69] — for background on the bond instrument generally, with the understanding that the commercial surety framework does not govern resignation bonds.
---