Anciently, the first person to take the plate round (6)
I believe the answer is:
pilate
'anciently the' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'first person to take the plate round' is the wordplay.
'first person' becomes 'I' (first-person pronoun).
'to take' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'round' indicates an anagram.
'i'+'plate'='iplate'
'iplate' is an anagram of 'PILATE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pilate that I've seen before include "Magistrate passing death sentence" , "prefect" , "Roman who authorised the crufixion of Jesus" , "Biblical judge who washed his hands" , "Roman governor" .)