Recognizance
RECOGNIZANCE, noun recon'izance.
1. Acknowledgment of a person or thing; avowal; profession; as the recognizance of christians, by which they avow their belief in their religion.
2. In law, an obligation of record which a man enters into before some court of record or magistrate duly authorized, with condition to do some particular act, as to appear at the assizes, to keep the peace or pay a debt. This recognizance differs from a bond, as it does not create a new debt, but it is the acknowledgment of a former debt or record. This is witnessed by the record only, and not by the party's seal. There is also a recognizance in the nature of a statute staple, acknowledged before either of the chief justices or their substitutes, the mayor of the staple at Westminster and the recorder of London, which is to be enrolled and certified into chancery.
3. The verdict of a jury impaneled upon assize.