Advowson - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition advowson

Definition :

Advowson [fr. advocare, Lat.], a right of presentation to, or the patronage of, a church or spiritual living; the person possessed of this right or patronage being called the patron or advocate (patronus aut advocatus), on account of his obligation to protect and defend the privileges of the particular benefice. An advowson is in the nature of a temporal property and spiritual trust. For the origin and history of advowsons, consult Mirehouse on Advowsons, pp. 1-6.

There are several kinds of advowsons, viz.:--

(I.) Presentative advowsons, subdivided into,

Appendant.

In gross, and

Partly appendant, and partly in gross.

(II.) Collative advowsons.

(I.) A presentative advowson appendant is a right of patronage annexed to the possession of some corporeal hereditament. Thus, where an advowson has immemorially passed together with a manor or reputed manor by a simple grant of such manor, without particularly referring to the advowson, it is then said to be appendant, i.e., annexed to the demesnes of such manor, which subsist perpetually.

A presentative advowson in gross is a right of patronage self-subsistent, belonging to the patron as an individual, and not in any wise appendant to a corporeal inheritance.

While a few advowsons were originally in gross, as when the right originated in an agreement that a builder of a church and his heirs should be its patrons ratione fundationis, yet the greater number of them were primarily appendant, becoming by subsequent circumstances severed in gross.

The severance may take place in several modes:--(1) when the corporeal inheritance is conveyed away, with a special reservation of the advowson; (2) when the advowson is granted away, and not the corporeal inheritance to which it was incident; (3) when the patron presents to it as though it were already severed. An advowsons, once completely and unconditionally severed, can never again become appendant. But should an advowson be disappended conditionally, as in the case of a mortgage, it will reunite when the loan is repaid. So, if the advowson be excepted in a lease of the corporeal inheritance, it remains in gross during the lease, but upon its expiration it becomes appendant again. These instances, however, are rather suspensions than severances.

A disappendancy created by a wrongful act may be done away with by defeating such act; and should it be effected by operation of law, the appendancy will be preserved, unless otherwise expressly intended.

A 'presentative advowson' may be partly appendant and partly in gross; thus, when the owner grants to another every second presentment, for then the advowson will be appendant for the grantor's turn, and in gross for that of the grantee. And should the advowson appendant, and that in gross, be afterwards possessed by the same person, still the advowson will be appendant for one turn, and in gross for the other. So, if three persons be seized of a manor with a presentative advowson appendant, and two of them release their right of the patronage to the third, he then becomes seised of two thirds of the advowson as in gross and of the unsevered third as appendant; but on death of this third person, the entire advowson will devolve in gross upon his heir or devisee, Mirehouse on Advowsons, 20.

(II.) A collative advowson arises when a bishop has the right of patronage. Collation is the conferring of a benefice by a bishop. It is an immediate institution without any presentation, and is completed by the induction of the collatee. Where a bishop collates and dies before induction, the Crown presents as having in its custody the temporalities of the vacant bishopric.

There was also formerly another class called donative advowsons, but they are all now converted into presentatives: see DONATIVE.

The transfer of presentative advowsons is much restricted by the (English) Benefices Act, 1898 (61 & 62 Vict. c. 48), and by the (English) Benefices Act, 1898 (Amendment) Measure, 1923 (14 & 15 Geo. 5), No. 1. See also the (English) Benefices (Transfer of Rights of Patronage) Measure, 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5), No. 8, and the (English) Benefices (Purchase of Rights of Patronage) Measure, 1933 (23 Geo. 5), No. 1 (see BENEFICE).

The patrons of united churches (1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, ss. 15 et seq.; and 4 & 5 Vict. c. 39, s. 23) have several rights, for though there be but one advowson, yet every patron has the whole advowson in his turn, since the patronage remains as before, though by the union the incumbency of one church is extinguished; and though the incumbency of the churches is united, the tithes, boundaries, moduses, and profits continue as before, for there can be no union of parishes though there be of churches.

As to the exchange of advowsons, see 3 & 4 Vict. c. 113, s. 73, and 4 & 5 Vict. c. 39, s. 22 and Elcho (Lord) v. Andrews, (1910) 1 Ch 706. As to the sale of advowsons held by or in trust for parishioners and others forming a numerous class, see 19 & 20 Vict. c. 50. By the (English) Lord Chancellor's Augmentation Act, 1863 (26 & 27 Vict. c. 120), the Lord Chancellor is authorized to sell the numerous advowsons specified in the schedule to that Act, the proceeds to be applied in the augmentation of benefices and otherwise. As to the union of contiguous benefices in cities, towns, and boroughs, see 23 & 24 Vict. c. 14. See NEXT PRESENTATION.