Dear Listers, I quote; 'the manor, including the gift of the Living of the Church, was held by Patrick Chawtres in 1258." Could SKS please enlighten me, what does it mean? 'the gift of the Living of the Church.' Many thanks for any help or hints. Regards, Sheila sheila@netdocs.com

Sheila, best approached in two parts : 1. Living. Effectively the monies that go with the appointment of a parish priest The Church of England has investments and large land and property holdings, thus deriving monies to pay the parish priests. (This is a very simple version of the whole truth) 2. Gift An example of the almost but not quite dead power system that exists in England Rather like Animal Farm, all parishes are equal but some are more equal than others The power to appoint a parish priest did not always lie with a central authority. Some powers resided elsewhere in the power base. The appointment was called a gift. Sometimes they were a gift indeed as some parishes were individually endowed with some quite large monies. . One of my ancestors was Rector at Winkfield for more than 40 years. The power to appoint the Vicar was, I believe, in the hands of an Oxford college. My ancestor did have the glebe lands, however, to provide his family with food. Regards REB

"the gift of the Living of the Church" - this manorial right was known as the advowson and was jealously guarded by the purchasers of manors. David