Ancestor

One who has preceded another in a direct line of descent; an ascendant. A former possessor; the person last seised.

Termes de la Ley; 2 Sharswood, Bl. Comm. 201.

In the common law, the word is under^ stood as well of the immediate parents as of those that are higher; as may appear by St. 25 Edw. III., De natis ultra mare, and by St. 6 Rich. II. c. 6, and by many others. But the civilians' relations in the ascending line, up to the great-grandfather's parents, and those above them, they term majores, which common lawyers aptly expound antecessors, or ancestors, for in the descendants ' of like degree they are called posteriores.

Gary, Litt. 45.

The term "ancestor" is applied to natural persons. The words "predecessors" and "successors" are used in respect to the persons composing a body corporate.

See 2 Bl. Comm. 209; Bac. Abr.; Ayliffe, Pand. 58; Reeve, Descents.