Succession

Also 4–5 -oun(e, -yon, etc. [ad. OF. succession (from 13th c.) or its source L. successio, -ōnem, n. of action f. succēdĕre to SUCCEED. Cf. Pr. successio, It. successione, Sp. sucesion, Pg. successão.]

  I.  1. The action of a person or thing following, or succeeding to the place of, another; the coming of one person or thing after another; also, the passing from one act or state to another; an instance of this.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 2156. He hath so wel biset his ordinaunce, That speces of thynges and progressions Shullen enduren by successions.

1577.  trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 6. Least peraduenture their children shuld be ignorant of the beginning and succession of worldly thinges.

1605.  Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. 113 b. The future succession of all ages.

1624.  Gataker, Transubst., 148. Such a succession is to be found in euery substantiall conuersion, whereby one substance is destroyed, and another succeedeth in the roome of it.

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., II. xiv. § 6. By reflecting on the appearing of various Ideas, one after another in our Understandings, we get the Notion of Succession.

1738.  Wesley, Hymn ‘God is a Name my Soul adores,’ iii. Thy Being no Succession knows And all thy vast Designs are one.

1764.  Goldsm., Trav., 116. Whatever blooms in torrid tracts appear, Whose bright succession decks the varied year.

1847.  Tennyson, Princess, III. 312. We … live, perforce, from thought to thought, and make One act a phantom of succession.

1866.  Owen, Anat. Vertebrates, I. § 70. 381. The reproduction of the component denticles in horizontal succession.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., vi. § 6 (1882), 330. The series of measures which in their rapid succession changed the whole character of the English Church.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 416. The ideas of men have a succession in time as well as an order of thought.

  † b.  The act of passing by continuous movement into a place. Obs.

1691.  Ray, Creation, I. (1692), 69. The Air accompanies and follows it by a constant Succession.

1729.  T. Dale, trans. Freind’s Emmenol. (1752), xii. 154. Nutrition being nothing else than the apposition of any Juice, or a perpetual succession of aliment into the Pores of the Fibres.

  † c.  The act of following another in a course of conduct. Obs. rare.

1601.  Shaks., All’s Well, III. v. 24. The miserie is example, that so terrible shewes in the wracke of maiden-hood, cannot for all that disswade succession.

  2.  Phr. a. In succession, one after another in regular sequence, successively.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., III. v. 306. Forto abide in thilk sufficience thoruȝ manye ȝeeris in successioun.

1668.  Moxon, Mech. Dyalling, 46. Mark them in succession from the beginning with 10, 20, 30, to 90.

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., II. xiv. § 10. ’Tis as clear as any Demonstration can be, that it must … touch one part of the Flesh first, and another after; and so in Succession.

1801.  Farmer’s Mag., April, 149. In the period I have taken, we have had three unfavourable seasons, and two in succession, worse than any other in the memory of any man living.

1827.  Faraday, Chem. Manip., xix. (1842), 505. On one end of the tube the parts will be bent and curved in succession as they become heated.

1868.  Lockyer, Elem. Astron., iii. § 12 (1879), 69. The rotation of the Earth bringing each part in succession from sunshine to shade.

1914.  Infantry Training, 73. When a column is on the march, platoons may, if desired, advance in fours in succession.

  † b.  By succession(s: successively. Obs.

1432–50.  trans. Higden (Rolls), II. 271. After that other realmes were made in Grece by succession.

1591.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. ii. Wks. (1641), 11/1. Because the Matter, wounded deep in Heart With various Love … by successions, Form after Form receives.

  † c.  In a succession: continuously. Obs.

a. 1715.  Burnet, Own Time (1724), I. 173. If the money … had been raised all in a succession, as fast as the work could be carried on.

  † 3.  The course, lapse or process of time. Obs.

1456.  Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 229. A thing that is nocht of valew be the law as ground of rycht in the begynnyng, the successioun of tyme may never mak it rycht.

1620.  E. Blount, Horæ Subs., 328. This was the true Originall, by which in succession of time the Empire was translated.

1655.  M. Carter, Honor Rediv. (1660), 90. Succession of time hath converted it into another custom.

  4.  The transmission (or mode of transmission) of an estate, royal or official dignity, or the like.

a. 1325.  MS. Rawl. B. 520, fol. 59. Þoru maner of ȝifte þe womman passez bifore þe man, in succession.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, I. 57. Thai said, successioun of kyngrik Was nocht to lawer feys lik; For thar mycht succed na female.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 147. The moder blood schulde be putt to fore in successioun of heritage.

1432–50.  trans. Higden (Rolls), III. 403. Philippus the kynge of Macedony, sollicitate and besy for the succession of þat realme [orig. de regni successore].

1538.  Starkey, England, II. ii. 195. As touchyng the successyon and intaylyng of landys, ther must nedys be prouysyon.

1641.  Earl Monm., trans. Biondi’s Civil Wars, IX. 223. So long as the Earl of Warwick lived, he was not certaine of the Kingdoms succession.

1682.  Dryden, Mac Flecknoe, 10. To settle the Succession of the State.

1690.  in Nairne Peerage Evidence (1874), 26. To provyde and secure the successione of the lands.

1826.  Bell, Comm. Laws Scotl. (ed. 5), I. 100. The equal partition of the succession which prevailed in the Roman law, has place also in the law of Scotland in the succession of moveables.

  5.  The process by which one person succeeds another in the occupation or possession of an estate, a throne, or the like; the act or fact of succeeding according to custom or law to the rights and liabilities of a predecessor; the conditions or principles in accordance with which this is done.

  The succession: the conditions under which successors to a particular estate, throne, etc., are appointed. War of Succession: a war to settle a dispute as to the succession to a particular throne.

a. 1513.  Fabyan, Chron., VII. ccxxvi. (1811), 254. That he shulde haue MMM. markes yerelye, as before was promysed vnto hym … with other condycions of successyon.

1533–4.  Act 25 Hen. VIII., c. 22. An Acte for the establishement of the Kynges succession.

1593.  Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., II. i. 172. He swore consent to your Succession.

1607.  Chapman, Bussy d’Ambois, III. ii. 385. Why wrongful to suppose the doubtless right To the succession worth the thinking on?

1643.  Baker, Chron. (1653), 99. King Richard being dead, the right of Succession remained in Arthur, Son of Geoffry Plantagenet.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 303. Th’ immortal Line in sure Succession reigns.

a. 1700.  Evelyn, Diary, 16 May 1681. Lord Sunderland … having fallen into displeasure of the King for siding with the Commons about the Succession.

1701.  Farquhar, Sir H. Wildair, IV. i. What, sir? the Succession!—Not mind the Succession!

1708.  Chamberlayne, M. Brit. Notitia, II. II. ii. (1710), 385. The Succession to the Crown of Scotland.

1714.  Swift, Pres. St. Aff., Wks. 1755, II. I. 214. The security of the protestant succession in the house of Hanover.

1766.  Blackstone, 13 Comm., II. The power of the laws in regulating the succession to property.

1790.  Burke, Fr. Rev., Wks. 1808, V. 64. The course of succession is the healthy habit of the British constitution.

1832.  Ld. Mahon (title), History of the War of the Succession in Spain.

1839.  Keightley, Hist. Eng., II. 44. The dangers of a disputed succession being now terminated.

1853.  Act 16 & 17 Vict., c. 51 (title), An Act for granting to Her Majesty Duties on Succession to Property.

1879.  Dixon, Windsor, II. xvi. 169. She stood in order of succession to the duchy.

  b.  Phr. (a) By succession: according to the customary or legal principle by which one succeeds another in an inheritance, an office, etc., by inherited right.

1412–20.  Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. 2889. Sche þat … schulde haue ben by successioun Eyre by dissent of þat regioun. Ibid. (c. 1430), Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 17. The degré be just successioune,… Unto the kyng is now descended doune, From ether parte righte as eny lyne.

1474.  Caxton, Chesse, II. ii. (1883), 27. For better is to haue a kynge by succession than by eleccion.

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., II. i. 192. How art thou a King But by faire sequence and succession? Ibid. (c. 1600), Sonn., ii. Proouing his beautie by succession thine.

1668.  Dryden, Def. Dram. Poesy, Ess. 1900, I. 111. I am only a champion by succession.

1865.  F. M. Nichols, trans. Britton, I. 219, marg. Title by succession.

  (b)  (To have, hold, take) in succession.

1472–3.  Rolls of Parlt., VI. 4/2. Londes … which eny persone temporell … hath … in fee symple, eny maner fee tayle, or in succession.

1835.  Tomlins, Law Dict., s.v. Successor, Such a corporation cannot regularly take in succession goods and chattels.

1890.  Gross, Gild Merch., I. 95. The borough … was an aggregate body acting as an individual,… having a common seal, holding property in succession.

  c.  pregnantly for: The line or order of succession.

  [1533–4:  see sense 5.]

1708.  Swift, Sentim. Ch. Eng. Man, ii. Wks. 1841, II. 214/1. This hereditary right should be kept so sacred as never to break the succession.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xx. II. 460. He was in the succession to an earldom.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., vii. § 2 (1882), 353. Mary … had been placed next in the succession to Edward by her father’s will.

  6.  (A person’s) right or privilege of succeeding to an estate or dignity.

1461.  Rolls of Parlt., V. 490/2. Any persone or persones corporat, or havyng succession perpetuell. Ibid. (1477), VI. 172/2. Any persone or persones havyng succession.

1571.  Golding, Calvin on Ps. LXI. vii. He dyed full of dayes … having delivered the succession of his kingdome to his Sonne.

1583.  Reg. Privy Council Scot., Ser. I. III. 568. To denude him of his heretage and rychteous successioun dew to him as eldest sone.

1651.  trans. De-las-Coveras’ Don Fenise, 314. He without regarding the ordinance of his mother would possesse himselfe of the succession.

1680.  Dryden, Ovid’s Ep., 216 (J.).

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, xiv. He could achieve such a purpose without endangering both his succession and his life.

1875.  Maine, Hist. Instit., i. 16. Each tract was the property … of some body of persons who, in modern legal phrase, had perpetual succession.

1894.  Sir W. Harcourt, in Daily News, 17 April, 2/7. The right to make wills or settlements or successions is the creation of positive law.

  7.  The act of succeeding to the episcopate by the reception of lawfully transmitted authority by ordination. Apostolic(al) succession (or the succession), the continued transmission of the ministerial commission, through an unbroken line of bishops from the Apostles onwards.

1565.  Harding, Confut. Apol. Ch. Eng., 57 b. To go from your succession, which ye can not proue, and to come to your vocation, how saye you, Syr?

1567.  Jewel, Def. Apol., II. 129. Haue these menne their owne succession in so safe Record? Who was then the Bishop of Rome nexte by succession vnto Peter?

1577.  Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist., 55. Obtayning the first stepp of Apostolical Succession, and being deuine Disciples of the … principall men.

1653.  Cromwell, Sp., 4 July (Carlyle). I speak not … for a Ministry deriving itself from the Papacy, and pretending to that which is so much insisted on, ‘Succession.’

1845.  Bp. Wilberforce, in Ashwell, Life (1880), I. viii. 314. Instead of taking as your prominent subject the ‘Succession’ … you would take the more spiritual view of the Ministry.

1847.  Yeowell, Anc. Brit. Ch., ix. 99. We have an account of their [sc. the bishops’] successions for some ages.

1869.  A. W. Haddan, Apost. Success. Ch. Eng., ii. 35. Foreign or other Protestants, who either disclaim or do not possess the Succession. Ibid., 36. The historical and canonical objections advanced … against the validity of the English Succession.

  II.  † 8. Successors, heirs or descendants collectively; progeny, issue. Obs.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter Cant. 496. My generacioun, þat is, succession of childire.

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 4857. Bycause alle is corrumpable And faile shulde successioun.

1432–50.  trans. Higden (Rolls), II. 441. The sonnes of Hector recurede and toke þe cite of Troye, expellenge the succession of Antenor.

1459.  Rolls of Parlt., V. 351/2. Eny other succession of youre body lawefully commyng.

1533–4.  Act 25 Hen. VIII., c. 22. To … provyde for the perfite suertie of both you and of your moste lawfull succession and heires.

1555.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 296. When they [sc. beasts] shulde bringe furth theyr broode or succession.

1605.  in Abst. Protocols Town Clerks Glasgow (1896), II. 121. Prayeris … for … the Kingis Majestie, his hienes Quein, and thair successioune.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., III. i. 8. Cassibulan … for him, And his Succession, granted Rome a Tribute.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 78. Their young Succession all their Cares employ: They breed, they brood, instruct and educate.

  † 9.  A generation (of men); chiefly pl. (future or successive) generations. Obs.

c. 1430.  Lydg., Minor Poems (Percy Soc.), 85. The chieldren of Seth in story ye may se, Flowryng in vertu by longe successiouns.

1593.  Nashe, Christ’s T., 26 b. So exceeding are mine aduersities, that after successions which shall heare of them; will euen be desolate … with the hearing.

1611.  Beaum. & Fl., Maid’s Trag., IV. i. Found out with every finger, made the shame Of all successions.

1659.  Hammond, On Ps. lxxix. 13. Our posterity to all successions joyning with us.

1685.  Burnet, trans. More’s Utopia, 98. Ancestors, who have been held for some Successions rich.

1720.  Swift, Mod. Educ., Wks. 1755, II. II. 39. The sloth, luxury, and abandoned lusts, which enervated their breed through every succession.

  † b.  Posterity. Obs.

1628.  Hall, Contempl., O. T., XIII. 1098. If we sow good workes succession shall reape them.

1655.  Stanley, Hist. Philos., I. (1701), 13/1. To propagate his Doctrine to Succession.

1704.  Inett, Orig. Anglic., I. xi. § 14. 183–4. Succession so far justified this Proceeding, that this Council of Sardice was never receiv’d by the Eastern Churches.

1704.  Nelson, Fest. & Fasts (1705), xvi. 185. He … provided for Succession by constituting Bishops, and other Officers and Pastors.

  10.  A series of persons or things in orderly sequence; a continued line (of sovereigns, heirs to an estate, etc.); an unbroken line or stretch (of objects coming one after another). Also, † a continued spell (of weather).

1579.  W. Wilkinson, Confut. Fam. Love, A iij. The succession of Popes, and that body and kingdome is the very Antichrist.

1594.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., II. vi. § 4. St. Augustine … saith … In all this order of succession of Bishops [of Rome] there is not one Bishop found that was a Donatist.

1603.  Knolles, Hist. Turks (1638), 231. The Greeke Historiographers (best like to know the Turkish succession).

1662.  Stillingfl., Orig. Sacræ, II. iv. § 1. In that same place God doth promise a succession of Prophets.

1667.  Milton, P. L., XII. 331. A long succession must ensue, And his next Son … The clouded Ark of God … shall in a glorious Temple Enshrine.

1734.  trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist., I. Pref. p. vi. The entire succession of ages is present to him.

1796.  Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 168. An agreeable succession of small points of land.

1797.  Jane Austen, Pride & Prej., I. xvii. (1813), 203. Such a succession of rain.

1831.  Brewster, Optics, iv. 34. When we consider the inconceivable minuteness of the particles of light, and that a single ray consists of a succession of those particles.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vii. II. 189. The House of Austria had, by a succession of victories, been secured from danger on the side of Turkey.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., vii. § 7 (1882), 418. Every progress of Elizabeth from shire to shire was a succession of shows and interludes.

  † b.  The followers collectively, or a sect of followers, of a school of thought. (Rendering Gr. διαδοχή.) Obs.

1653.  More, Antid. Ath., Gen. Pref. p. xvii. I omitted to set down the succession of the Pythagorick school.

1656.  Stanley, Hist. Philos., IV. (1701), 133/1. The Succession of the Ionick Philosophy, which before Socrates was single: after him was divided into many Schools.

1699.  Bentley, Phal., 80. The Successions of the Pythagorean School.

  11.  A set of persons or things succeeding in the place of others.

1647.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 165. That That which looked like Pride in some, and like Petulance in others, would … be in time wrought off, or in a new Succession reformed.

1821.  Shelley, Adonais, xliii. While the one Spirit’s plastic stress Sweeps through the dull dense world, compelling there All new successions to the forms they wear.

1865.  W. B. Carpenter, in Youmans, Corr. & Conserv. Forces 418 (Cent. Dict.). The leaves of ‘evergreens’ … are not cast off until the appearance of a new succession.

  † 12.  That to which a person succeeds as heir; an inheritance. Obs. rare.

1382.  Wyclif, Deut. xviii. 8. Out take that, that in his cytee of the fadre successyoun is owed to hym.

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, xxvii. 479. Now let vs see what we our selues haue brought to this decayed succession.

1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), Succession,… an Inheritance or Estate come to one by Succession.

1751.  Female Foundling, II. 80. I can, indeed, leave him a good Succession.

  III.  † 13. The result, issue. Obs. (Cf. late L. successio.)

1514.  in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. II. I. 228. Any prousperous succession of your Graces causes.

1549.  Latimer, 1st Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (Arb.), 36. According to the aduyse of his friend the one of them wroght where the succession was not good.

1557.  Card. Pole, in Strype, Eccl. Mem. (1822), III. II. 494. As the successyon shewede he dyd.

  IV.  14. In technical use: a. Astron. (See quots.)

1679.  Moxon, Math. Dict., Succession of the Signs, is that order in which they are usually reckoned; as first Aries, next Taurus, then Gemini, &c.

1728.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v., When a Planet is direct, it is said to go according to the Order and Succession of the Signs,… when Retrograde, it is said to go contrary to the Succession of the Signs.

  b.  Mus. ‘The order in which the notes of a melody proceed.’ Also = SEQUENCE 3 b.

1752.  trans. Rameau’s Treat. Musick, 85. A Sequence, or Succession of Harmony, is nothing else but a Link or Chain of Keys and Governing-notes.

1801.  Busby, Dict. Mus. (1811), s.v., Of succession there are two kinds, conjunct and disjunct. Conjunct Succession is when the sounds proceed regularly, upward or downward, through the several intervening degrees. Disjunct Succession is when they immediately pass from one degree to another without touching the intermediate degrees.

1875.  Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, s.v., A sequence is sometimes spoken of as a succession, and passages of similar chords or progressions are described as a succession of thirds [etc.].

  c.  Milit. (See quots.)

1745.  J. Millan (title), The Succession of Colonels to All His Majesties Land Forces, from their Rise, to 1744.

1802.  James, Milit. Dict., Succession of Rank, relative gradation according to the dates of commissions. Ibid., A Commission in succession, a commission in which an individual has an inherent property from having purchased it, or raised men. Ibid. (1805), Milit. Dict. (ed. 2), Succession of colonels, a particular part of the official army list is so called. The dates of the several appointments are therein specified, together with the numbers and facings of the different regiments.

  d.  Agric. and Hort. (a) The rotation (of crops); (b) the maturing of crops of the same kind by a system of successive sowings so that as one is declining another is coming on.

1778.  [Marshall], Observ. Agric., 168. The Succession of Crops (or rather of the Occupants of the Soil, whether Crops, or Fallow) may be regular or irregular. Ibid. (1796), Rural Econ. W. Eng., II. 144. The succession is similar to that of West Devonshire: ley ground, partially fallowed for wheat, with one or two crops of oats; grass seeds being sown with the last crop.

1842.  Loudon, Suburban Hort., 505. In order to have a succession of fruit, it is requisite to sow the seed at three different times.

1900.  Daily News, 5 May, 4/3. Almost every kind of vegetable may now be sown for succession.

  e.  Geol., etc. The continued sequence in a definite order of species, types, etc.; spec. the descent in uninterrupted series of forms modified by evolution or development.

1834.  Darwin, Jrnl., in Voy. Beagle (1839), III. 210. The law of the succession of types.

1836.  Buckland, Geol. & Min., I. vi. 54. To refer the origin of existing organizations … to an eternal succession of the same species.

1842.  Sedgwick, in Hudson’s Guide Lakes (1843), 188. Phenomena which not only indicate succession, but were elaborated during vast intervals of time.

  V.  15. attrib.: succession bath, a bath in which hot and cold water are used in succession (Cent. Dict.); succession-crop, a crop of some plant coming in succession to another; succession duty, a duty assessed upon succession to estate; succession flowers, a crop of flowers following an earlier crop; succession house, one of a series of forcing-houses having regularly graded temperatures into which plants are moved in succession; so succession-pine; succession powder (F. poudre de succession), a poison supposed to have been made of lead acetate; succession tax, a tax similar to succession duty; succession war = ‘war of succession’ (see 5).

1864.  Mrs. A. Gatty, Parables fr. Nat., 21. A narrow slip … for *succession-crops of mustard and cress.

1853.  Act 16 & 17 Vict., c. 51 § 45. The Commissioners … may assess the *Succession Duty on the Footing of such Account and Estimate. Ibid., 55. This Act may be cited for all Purposes as ‘The Succession Duty Act, 1853.’

1894.  Act 57 & 58 Vict., c. 30 § 18 (2). The principal value of real property for the purpose of succession duty shall be ascertained in the same manner.

1841.  Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), II. 25. Some amends is, however, made for this, in the readiness with which the *succession-flowers come on.

1792.  Charlotte Smith, Desmond, II. 93. An immense range of forcing and *succession houses.

1798.  Jane Austen, Northang. Abb. (1833), II. vii. 147. How were Mr. Allen’s succession-houses worked?

1857.  Mrs. Marsh, Rose Ashurst, I. iii. 77. He went on, opening succession house after succession house. We ended by the garden door at which we had entered.

1786.  Abercrombie, Gard. Assist., 59. Young *succession pines—or last years crowns and suckers retained in nursery bark pits or beds.

1824.  Ld. J. Russell, Mem. Aff. Europe, I. 192. The Countess of Soissons … Being accused of having bought some of the poison, called by the dealers *succession powder.

1846.  A. Amos, Great Oyer Poisoning, 347. In more modern times the like powers have been attributed to the Aqua Tophana, and the Succession Powder.

1858.  Bright, Sp., Reform, 27 Oct. (1869), 281. A law to impose a *Succession-tax.

a. 1823.  Penney, Linlithgowshire (1832), 151. This barony was probably forfeited during the *succession war.

1867.  Chambers’ Encycl., IX. 177/2. Succession wars were of frequent occurrence in Europe, between the middle of the 17th and the middle of the 18th centuries, on the occasion of the failure of a sovereign house.