Initial; leading; chief; preceding all others of the same kind or class in 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. A B. Co., 3 How. (Miss.) 247, 34 Am. Dec. 81; Hapgood v. Brown, 102 Mass. 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, 680; Wilcox v. Hey wood, 12 R. I. 198. First fruits. In English ecclesiastical law. 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 increasing the revenue from poor livings. In feudal law. One year’s profits of land which belonged to the king on the death of a tenant in capite; otherwise called “primer seisin.” One of the incidents to the old feudal tenures. 2 Bl. Comm. 66, 67. First heir. The person who will be first entitled to succeed to the title to an estate after the termination of a life estate or estate for years. Winter v. Perratt, 5 Barn. & C. 48. First impression. A case is said to be “of the first impression” when it presents an entirely novel question of law for the decision of the court and cannot be governed by auy existing precedent. First purchaser. In the law of descent, this term signifies the ancestor who first acquired (in any other manner than by inheritance) the estate which still remains 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 transmission, all being of the same tenor, and the intention being that the acceptance and payment of any one of them (the first to arrive safely) shall cancel the others of the set, they are called individually the “first of exchange,” “second of exchange, etc. See Bank of Pittsburgh v. Neal, 22 How. 06. 110, 16 L. Ed. 323.
As to first “Cousin,” “Distress,” “Lieu,” and “Mortgage,” see those titles.