antecessor

1. (now rare) A person or thing that precedes or goes before.Examples: "1671, Joseph Glanvill, A Præfatory Answer to Mr. Henry Stubbe, London: J. Collins, p. 57, […] the Waldenses[,] Antecessors of the Protestants"; "Yet who says, I have faith in the existence of George II., as his present Majesty’s antecessor and grandfather?"; "This, then, is their horrid counsel and device—that each one of their gods should kill his antecessor."Synonyms: precursor, predecessorAntonyms: successorarchaic

2. (now rare) A person from whom one is descended.Examples: "[…] some, hath iudged wrongfully As in reproche, of our country Deniyng playne, moste noble Brute Our antecessor our stocke and our frute."; "[…] promises made to Abraham, and to other antecessors of the Iewes,"; "At his mother’s knee he had heard of the exploits of her family, which boasted among its antecessors a surgeon on Nelson’s ship at Trafalgar."Synonyms: ancestorAntonyms: descendantarchaic