Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Advowson
Ad-vow′son
(?; 277)
, Noun.
(Eng. Law)
The right of presenting to a vacant benefice or living in the church. [Originally, the relation of a patron (advocatus) or protector of a benefice, and thus privileged to nominate or present to it.]
☞ The benefices of the Church of England are in every case subjects of presentation. They are nearly 12,000 in number; the advowson of more than half of them belongs to private persons, and of the remainder to the crown, bishops, deans and chapters, universities, and colleges.
Amer. Cyc.
Webster 1828 Edition
Advowson
ADVOW'SON
,Noun.
In English law, a right of presentation to a vacant benefice; or in other words, a right of nominating a person to officiate in a vacant church. The name is derived from advocatio, because the right was first obtained by such as were founders, benefactors or strenuous defenders, advocates, or the church. those who have this right are styled patrons. Advowsons are of three kinds, presentative, collative, and donative; presentative, when the patron presents his clerk to the bishop of the diocese to be instituted; collative, when the bishop is the patron, and institutes, or collates his clerk, by a single act; donative, when a church is founded by the king, and assigned to the patron, without being subject to the ordinary, so that the patron confers the benefice on his clerk, without presentation, institution, or induction.
Advowsons are also appendant, that is, annexed to a manor; or, in gross, that is annexed to the person of the patron.