_Antecedents._--The word "antecedents," as a plural, and in the sense
attached to it by the French, is not to be found in any English dictionary
that I have the means of consulting. And yet it seems now to be commonly
used as an English expression, even by some of our best writers.
When was this word first imported, and by whom? I have just met with an
instance of it in Jerdan's _Autobiography_, vol. i. p. 131.:
"I got him (Hammon), with a full knowledge of his antecedents, into the
employment of a humane and worthy wine merchant of Bordeaux."