FIRST

Initial; leading; chief; preced~ Ing all others of the same kind or cla 1n sequence, (numerical or chronological;) entitled to priority or preference above others. Redman v. Railroad Co., 33 N. J. Eq. 165; Thompson v. Grand Gulf R. & B. Co., 3 How. (Mi .) 247, 34 Am. Dec. 81; Hapgood v. G Brown, 102 Ma . 452. -First devisee. The person to whom the estate is first given by the will, the term "next devisee" referring to the person to whom the remainder is given, Young v. Robinson, 5 N. J. Law, 689; Wilcox v. ·Heywood, 12 R. I. 198. -First:fruits. In English ecclesiastical law. H The first year's whole profits of every benefice or spiritual living, anciently· paid by the incumbent to the pope, but afterwards transferred to the fund called "Queen Anne's Bounty," for in• creasing the rpvenue from poor livings. In feudal law. One year's profits of land which belonged to the king on the death of a tenant I in capite; otherwise called "primer 11eirin." One of the incidents to the old feudal tenure;;i. 2 BI. Comm. 66, 67.-Fir■t heir, The person who wiII be first entitled to succeed to the title to an estate after the termination of a life estate or estate for years. Winter v. Ferratt; G Barn. & C. 48.-First impre ion, A case ·i■ J said to be "of the first impre ion" when it presents an entirely novel question of law 'for the decision of the court, and cannot be governed by any existing precedent.-First purchaser. In the law of descent, this term signifies the an• cestor who first acquired (in any other manner than by inherj_tance) the estate which still re• K _mains in his family or descendants. Blair v. Adams (C. C.) 59 Fed. 247.-First of exchange. Where a set of bills of exchange is drawn in duplicate or triplicate, for greater safety in their transmi ion, all being of the same tenor, and the intention being that the acceptance and payment of any one of them (the L·. first to arrive safely) shall cancel the others of the set, they are called individuallt the "first of exchange," "second of exchange, etc. See Bank of Pittsburgh v. Neal, 22 How. 96, 110, 16 L. Ed. 323. As to first "Oousln," "Distre ," wLien," and "Mqrtgage," see those tltl-. M [s. 507]