1465 in A. Clark Lincoln Diocese Documents (1914) 124 (MED) I wol if Richard dye..that then his brother that hath halsted haue that that is beqwethed, And halsted to go to him that is next in descender.

1485–6 Rolls of Parl.: Henry VII (Electronic ed.) Parl. Nov. 1485 1st Roll §66. m. 45 Subjectes havyng cause of accion by formedowne in the descendre or els in the remayndre.

1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Surueyeng xi. f. 13 To sue his pleynt in y^e nature of the kynges writ, of formdowne in decendre at the commen lawe.

1598 tr. J. Kitchin Jurisdictions (1675) 250 Formedon in Discender lyeth where the Donee in Tail or free Marriage aliens that Land so given.

1628 E. Coke 1st Pt. Inst. Lawes Eng. 326 b There be three kinde of Writs of Formedon, viz. The first in the Discender to be brought by the issue in taile, which claime by discent Per formam doni.

1653 J. Gouldsborough Reports 5 At the Common Law there was no Formdone in discender, now it is given by the Statute of Westminster 2 cap. 1.

1768 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. III. 192 The heir in tail shall have this writ of formedon in the descender, to recover these lands, so given in tail, against him who is then the actual tenant of the freehold.

1793 R. Wooddeson Systematical View Laws of Eng. III. xlii. 17 In formedon in the descender the demandant must make himself heir to the donee.

1859 E. S. Capron et al. R. Vose's New Lawyer 353 All writs of formedon in descender, remainder, or reverter of any lands..shall be sued out within twenty years next after the titles or cause of action accrued.

1917 Mich. Law Rev. 15 133 If the heir in tail sued he used the formedon in the descender.

2001 J. Biancalana Fee Tail & Common Recovery in Medieval Eng. i. 79 A plaintiff on a descender writ need not base his claim on the seisin of a single ancestor.

1609 W. Rowley Search for Money 12 We might now heare the tonguelesse staires tell vs (by force of an oppressiue footing) that there was some-bodie descending, which was better verified by a rewmatique disposition of the descender.

1667 Direct. to Painter 38 Horrors and anguish of Descenders there, May teach thee how to paint Descenders here.

1771 A. M. E. Cooke Hermit Converted 32 And what does all this discover more at last, than a social co-operation of ascenders and descenders upon Jacob's ladder.

1856 G. Grote Hist. Greece XII. ii. xcvi. 507 An altar erected in honour of Demetrius Katæbates or the Descender.

1863 J. G. Murphy Crit. Comm. Bk. Gen. (xiii. 10) 311 This river [sc. Jordan] may well be called the descender.

1938 Times 2 Mar. 17/6 Of skiers, apart from the professionals, there are tourists, descenders, and indoor skiers.

1991 Bicycling Feb. 104/1 Perhaps all these factors helped make this $2,100 mega-bike one of the best descenders I've ridden.

1802 Monthly Mag. 14 70/1 Each small letter is to be without any tail-piece or descender.

1883 J. Millington Are we to read Backwards? 39 The modern Arabic figures—uniform in linage—[are] more legible than the ‘old style’ figures, with their many ascenders and descenders.

1938 Times Lit. Suppl. 30 Apr. 304/3 Where it saves space..is by very nearly eliminating the ‘descenders’ of the lower-case.

1980 InfoWorld 4 Aug. 18 (advt.) High speed bi-directional full logic printing; two standard character sets, upper/lower case with descenders.

2011 Hutchinson (Kansas) News 4 Nov. a8/1 Mention of cursive writing reminds older generations of the many hours spent in the classroom, copying their letters, correctly drawing the ascenders and descenders.

1977 Logansport (Indiana) Pharos-Tribune 29 Nov. 8/3 Another useful device now on the market is the ‘Figure 8 Descender’.

1988 High July 53/3 Lee also reminds us to carry a descender (or second ascender) in order to escape routes which prove too difficult.

2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 5 June ix. 10/1 Unlike those daring ladies who have scaled the Himalayas, Ms. Von Furstenberg does not go in for pitons, descenders and belay devices.