Forebear requires an exotic escort (8)
I believe the answer is:
ancestor
'forebear' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'an exotic escort' is the wordplay.
'exotic' indicates an anagram.
'escort' is an anagram of 'cestor'.
'an'+'cestor'='ANCESTOR'
'requires' is the link.
(Other definitions for ancestor that I've seen before include "One of one's forebears" , "Adam was our first one" , "An escort (anag.)" , "Antecedent, forebear" , "Forefather" .)