Advowson

Advowson (or "patronage") is the right in English law of a patron (avowee) to present to the diocesan bishop (or in some cases the ordinary if not the same person) a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a process known as presentation (jus praesentandi, Latin: "the right of presenting"). The word derives, via French, from the Latin advocare, from vocare "to call" plus ad, "to, towards", thus a "summoning". In effect, an advowson is the right to nominate a person to be parish priest (subject to episcopal approval), and such right was often originally held by the lord of the manor of the principal manor within the parish.

Legal status

An advowson was regarded as real property and could be bought, sold, or bequeathed; but following reforms of parish administration in the late 19th century it had little commercial value. The Benefices Act 1898 (Amendment) Measure 1923 placed a limit on the sale of advowsons so that they could not be sold after two vacancies had occurred subsequent to 14 July 1924, and provided ways securing this earlier by direction of the current patron. Advowsons were one of the earliest incorporeal hereditaments. As such, courts will still occasionally look to the common law on the transfer of advowsons for guidance on the transfer of modern incorporeal hereditaments, such as farming allotments, such as in First Victoria Nat'l Bank v. United States.