Beneficiary

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (n.) One who receives anything as a gift; one who receives a benefit or advantage; esp. one who receives help or income from an educational fund or a trust estate.

(2): (a.) Holding some office or valuable possession, in subordination to another; holding under a feudal or other superior; having a dependent and secondary possession.

(3): (a.) Bestowed as a gratuity; as, beneficiary gifts.

(4): (n.) A feudatory or vassal; hence, one who holds a benefice and uses its proceeds.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

in ecclesiastical usage, is the clerk in orders who receives the temporal benefit of an endowment.