0 a promise made by someone in a court of law, especially a promise to return to the court at a later date. If they break their promise, they have to pay money to the court: --
It does not depend on whether the recognizance is forfeited or not, but whether it appears to the adjudicator to be forfeited.
Two who were principals were ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £126, and a recognizance of £25 previously entered into by one of them was estreated.
The format of the clause is that once there is a non-appearance by the defendant then the recognizance is automatically forfeit.
The other sixteen were bound over, three of them being ordered to forfeit recognizances previously entered into.
When a person is bound over or put under the probation officer he enters into recognizance.
They should not have their private affairs pried into by all sorts of government officials on their own recognizance.
In one case the court made an order that the recognizances of two witnesses who had failed to appear should be estreated.
And would bind her over in her own recognizances to keep the peace for six months.
