Where parish churches existed on manors established before the Norman Conquest of 1066, the position is less clear and records generally are scarce from which to reconstruct a history.
Britain was split into dioceses, however, and many parish churches were established long before that time, and the process of their creation was likely similarly performed by Anglo-Saxon thanes as by Norman lords and feudal barons.
Initially feudal lords exercised seigneural dominium over these new parish churches, exacting an introit fee on appointment, and an annual rent thereafter.
Emerging Canon Law however, strongly deprecated dividing the cure of souls for a single parish in this way, and bishops ceased to allow such devices; except in the case of portionary collegiate foundations.
Canon law, however, by the 12th century, decreed that the right to present belonged to the saint to whom the church was dedicated and that only ecclesiastical courts could rule on cases involving advowsons.
Litigation (enabled in the temporal courts after the Reformation),[9] on the basis of an advowson was somewhat specialized, with unique forms of action inapplicable to other realty, such as the writ of quare impedit, by which a patron sued a bishop in support of his presented candidate, alleging unreasonable hindrance to succession to a benefice.
The Benefices Act 1898 (Amendment) Measure 1923 phased out advowsons so that they could not be sold or inherited after two vacancies occurred after 14 July 1924 and enabled their elimination earlier by direction of the current patron.
[12] Advowsons were valuable assets for a number of reasons, principally as a means for the patron to exert moral influence on the parishioners, who were his manorial tenants, through the teaching and sermons of the parish priest.
An appointment could also be used to provide an income for a valued servant in holy orders (such as a chaplain or secretary), or as a reward for past services rendered to the patron by the appointee.
[13] Advowsons were frequently used by lords and landowners as a means of providing a career and income for a younger son who, due to the custom of primogeniture, would not inherit any of the paternal lands.
The existence of an entirely independent set of records within the diocesan archives, generally published in the calendars of the bishops of the see in question, is thus a valuable resource.
The distribution of the church income away from a select few means the days of the fiercely independent, often right-wing "fox-hunting parson" like Jack Russell (d. 1883), are extinct.
Abolition of manorial courts in the 19th century and the gradual removal of copyhold title, ending in 1925,[14] meant the powers, not the vestigial office, of the lord of the manor, were eliminated.
[15] Advowsons have lower value to lay holders, since the ban on sale of livings is more easily enforced and few lay holders wish to exert a proxy influence over the morals of their neighbourhood, most of which would have from medieval times to the 19th century have been their tenants in the parish, nor in such a way for their younger children to be put forward for preferred selection as parish priests, which was in the era of tithes often a source of high real-terms pay.
[19] In March 2021, the PCC of St Luke's, West Holloway announced it is seeking a patron other than the Church Pastoral Aid Society.