Recognizance

An obligation of record, entered Into before some court of record or magistrate duly authorized, with condition to do some particular act; as to appear at the assizes or criminal court, to keep the peace, to pay a debt or the like. It resembles a bond, but differs from it in being an acknowledgment of a former debt upon record.

2 Bl. Comm. 341. See U. S. v. Insley (C. C.) 49 Fed. 778; State v. Walker, 56 N. H. 178; Crawford v. Vinton, 102 Mich. 83, 62 N. W. 988; State v. Grant, 10 Minn. 48 (Gil. 22), Longley v. Vose, 27 Me. 179; Com. v. Emery, 2 Bin. (Pa.) 431.

In criminal law, a person who has been found guilty of an offense may, in certain cases, be required to enter into a recognizance by which he binds himself to keep the peace for a certain period. Sweet. In the practice of several of the states, a recognizance is a species of bail-bond or security, given by the prisoner either on being bound over for trial or on his taking an appcal.