Becognizance

recognisance. An acknowledgment upon record; an acknowledgment of a debt upon record; an obligation of record, entered into before a court or a magistrate duly authorized, with condition to do a particular act, — as to appear at court, to keep the peace, to pay a debt, or the like; the undertaking of special bail in a civil action, of which the bail piece is a memorandum.

In old English law. Ah assise; the inquisition or verdict of an as<<ise.