DESCENT, or Hereditary Succession, in Law, is the title by which a man, on the death of his ancestor, acquires his estate by right of representation, as his heir-at-law.
Descent is either lineal or collateral. The former is that which is conveyed down in a right line from the grandfather to the father, and from the father to the son, and from the son to the grandson. The latter is that which springs out of the side of the line or blood, as from a man to his brother, nephew, or the like.
Descent of Dignities. A dignity differs from common inheritances, and goes not according to the rules of the common law; for it descends to the half-blood, and there is no coparcenership in it, but the eldest takes the whole. The dignity of peerage is personal, annexed to the blood, and so inseparable that it cannot be transferred to any person, nor surrendered even to the crown; it can move neither forward nor backward, but only downward to posterity; and nothing but corruption of blood, as when the ancestor is attainted of treason or felony, can hinder its descent to the right heir.
Descent, in Genealogy, the order succession of descendants in a line or family, or their distance from a common progenitor. Thus we say one descent, two descents, and so on.