noun
definition
(ecclesiastical law) The right to present a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church office.
Examples of advowsons in a Sentence
After his release Prynne further expressed his feelings in defence of advowsons and patrons, an attack on the Quakers (1655), and in a pamphlet against the admission of the Jews to England (A Short Demurrer to the Jews) issued in 1656.
Advowsons are divided into two kinds, appendant and in gross.
Advowsons are, further distinguished into presentative and collative.
Before 1898 there were also donative advowsons, but the Benefices Act 1898 made all donations with cure of souls presentative.
The Benefices Act of 1898 did not make any substantial change in the legal character of advowsons, which remain practically the same as before the act.
Under the Benefices Act, advowsons may not be sold by public auction except in conjunction with landed property adjacent to the benefice; transfers of patronage must be registered in the registry of the diocese, and no such transfers can be made within twelve months after the last admission or institution to the benefice.
Certain owners of advowsons are temporarily or permanently disabled from exercising the right which devolves upon other persons; and the crown as patron paramount of all benefices can fill all churches not regularly filled by other patrons.
Another provision, which in spite of all opposition obtained a permanent place in English law, declared that all suits even between clerk and clerk concerning advowsons and presentations should be tried in the king's court.
After the Dissolution, the rectories and advowsons formerly held by monastic houses were sold, so that there were many lay rectors.