antecessors

Then a fuller draft was drawn out, also in 1596, correcting "antecessors" into "grandfather."

Shakespeare's Family 1885

'antecessors' in the account of John Shakespeare's ancestry, and the substitution of the word 'esquire' for 'gent' in the description of his wife's father, Robert Arden.

A Life of William Shakespeare with portraits and facsimiles Sidney Lee 1892

Christ, must be some Disciple that conversed with him, and saw him before and after his resurrection; and consequently must be one of his original Disciples: whereas they which were not so can witness no more, but that their antecessors said it, and are therefore but witnesses of other men's testimony, and are but second martyrs, or martyrs of Christ's witnesses.

Leviathan 2007

WHEN, forty years afterwards, Henry Adams looked back over his adventures in search of knowledge, he asked himself whether fortune or fate had ever dealt its cards quite so wildly to any of his known antecessors as when it led him to begin the study of law and to vote for Abraham Lincoln on the same day.

Treason (1860–1861) 1918

Garter stated, with characteristic vagueness, that he had been 'by credible report' informed that the applicant's 'parentes and late antecessors were for theire valeant and faithfull service advanced and rewarded by the most prudent prince King Henry the Seventh of famous memories sythence whiche tyme they have continewed at those partes

A Life of William Shakespeare with portraits and facsimiles Sidney Lee 1892

Nobody now knows anything of that earlier pattern, nor of the patents of the gifts "to the antecessors."

Shakespeare's Family 1885

In the first 1596 draft the claims are based on John's public office, on a grant to his antecessors by Henry VII. for special services on marriage with the daughter and heir of a gentleman of worship (_i. e._, entitled to armorial bearings).

Shakespeare's Family 1885

Some writers consider that, following a custom of the day, John Shakespeare treated as _his_ antecessors his wife's ancestors.

Shakespeare's Family 1885

-- Ante sometimes becomes an as, ancestors for antecessors.

The Scholar's Spelling Assistant; Wherein the Words Are Arranged on an Improved Plan, According to Their Respective Principles of Accentuation. In a Manner Calculated to Familiarize the Art of Spelling and Pronunciation, to Remove Difficulties, and to Facilitate General Improvement Intended for the Use of Schools and Private Tuition 1861

Avon in the counte of Warwik, whose parentes and late antecessors [10] were for theyre faithefull and va [leant service advaunced and rewarded by the most prudent] prince King Henry the

The Handbook to English Heraldry Charles Boutell 1844