ADVOWSONS, VALUE OF.—The following plain rules for estimating the value of advowsons may be of use. The bargains which are usually made with respect Io advowsons are, either for the advowson itself; i.e. the right of pre sentation for ever, or for the right of presenting the next incumbent, i.e. the next presentation. In both these cases there may be circumstances peculiar to the living itself, which fall under no general rale, but which must be con sidered and allowed for in valuing the advowson as a property. For example, a curate may be necessary ; the parson age-house may be in a state which will entail expenses on the next incumbent ; arid so on. Again, the property itself is of a nature more likely to be altered in value by the act of the legislature than the fee-simple of an estate. The follow ing rules, therefore, give the very highest value of the advowson, and any purchaser should think twice before he gives as much as is found by them.
To find the value of the perpetual ad vowson of a living producing 1000/. a year, the present incumbent being forty five years of age, and money making four per cent., we must first find how many years' purchase the incumbent's life is worth, and here we should recommend the use of the government or Carlisle tables, in preference to any other. Taking the latter, we find the annuity on a life of forty-five, at four per cent., to be worth fourteen and one-tenth years' purchase ; but at four per cent. any sum to be con tinued annually for ever is woi di twenty five years' purchase. The difference is ten and nine-tenths years' purchase, or, for 1000/. a year, 10;9004 which is the
value of the advowson.
In finding the value of the next pre sentation only, other things remaining the same, the teller will presume that the buyer means to make the best of his bar gain by putting in the youngest life that the laws will allow, that is, one aged twenty-four. The value of an annuity ea such a life at four per cent., according to the Carlisle tables, is seventeen and eight-tenths years' purchase. And as we are giving the highest possible value of the advowson, omitting no circumstance which can increase it, we will suppose the next incumbent to come into a year's profits of the living immediately on his taking possession. The rule is this :—Take four per cent. of the value of the present 'incumbent's life, or 14-1 x•04, which gives •564 ; subtract this from 1, which gives •436 ; divide by 1 increased by the rate per cent, or PO4, which gives '419 ; add one year's purchase to the presumed value of the next incumbent's life (171), which gives 18'8, multiply this by the last result, '419, which gives 18.8 x'419. or 7.88 nearly—the number• of years' pur chase which the next presentation is now worth—which, if the living be 10001. a year, is 788C1.
For the Carlisle Table of Annuities, see Milne On Annuities, vol. ii. p. 595. For the Goven;iment Tables, see Mr. Fin laison's Report to the House of Commons, ordered to be printed 31 March, 1829, page 58, column 6.