Forerunner

n. 1. A messenger sent before to give notice of the approach of others; a harbinger; hence, a sign foreshowing something to follow; a prognostic; as, the forerunners of a fever.

My elder brothers, my forerunners, came. Dryden.

2Sense 2. A predecessor; an ancestor. [Obs.]

3Sense 3. (Naut.) A piece of rag terminating the stray line of the log-line. Dana.