Parsons Law, Or, A View of Advowsons, Wherein is Contained the.

London, 1673. 3rd & final ed. Scarce Treatise on the Law of Advowson Hughes, William [1587 or 1588-1663]. Parsons Law: Or, A View of Advowsons. Wherein is Contained the Rights of the Patrons, Ordinaries and Incumbents, To Advowsons of Churches, and Benefices with Cure of Souls, And Other Spiritual Promotions. Collected Out of the Whole Body of the Common Law, And Some Late Reports. Reviewed and Much Enlarged by the Author in His Life-Time, and Purged from Sundry Errors in the Former Editions, And Published Now. London: Printed for W. Leak, T. Basset, S. Heyrick, And G. Dawes, 1673. [xvi], 140, 145-299, [1] pp. Pagination irregular, text complete. Title page preceded by one-page published advertisement. Octavo (6-1/2" x 4"). Contemporary sheep, rebacked, blind rules to boards, gilt title to spine. Light rubbing and a few minor scuffs to boards, heavier rubbing to extremities with some wear to board edges and corners, front free endpaper loose, rear endpaper removed. Moderate toning to text, foxing and faint dampspotting in places, early markings and annotations to preliminaries in minuscule hand. $350. * Third and final edition, one of two issues from 1673. Hughes, a barrister of Gray's Inn, was the author of an important abridgment, an edition of Horne's Mirrour of Justices and the editor of an interesting collection of mooted cases. First published in 1641, Parsons Law concerns laws governing advowson, a patron's right in English law to present a candidate to fill a vacant ecclesiastical benefice to a bishop (or other church official). According to the preface, Hughes says he wrote this book in response to "the earnest request of some eminent men of the Clergy" [iii]. English Short-Title Catalogue R3642.…