Rector - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition rector

Definition :

Rector, a governor; in ecclesiastical law, either a layman, sometimes called a 'lay rector' or 'lay impropriator,' who has that part of the revenues of a church which before the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII. was appropriated to a monastery, the incumbent generally being a 'vicar'; or, in cases where the living had not been so impropriated and a spiritual person, the 'parson,' who has the whole revenues together with the cure of souls. See 1 Bl. Com. 384.

The spiritual head and presiding officer of a church, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1281.