Acknowledgment
ACKNOWLEDGMENT (from the old acknow, a compound of on- and know, to know by the senses, which passed through the forms oknow, aknow and acknow; acknowledge is formed on analogy of "knowledge"), an admission that something has been given or done, a term used in law in various connexions. The acknowledgment of a debt, if in writing signed by the debtor or his agent, is sufficient to take it out of the Statutes of Limitations. The signature to a will by a testator, if not made in the presence of two witnesses, may be afterwards acknowledged in their presence. The acknowledgment by a woman married before 1882 of deeds for the conveyance of real property not her separate property, requires to be made by her before a judge of the High Court or of a county court or before a perpetual or special commissioner. Before such an acknowledgment can be received, the judge or commissioner is required to examine her apart from her husband, touching her knowledge of the deed, and to ascertain whether she freely and voluntarily consents to it. An acknowledgment to the right of the production of deeds of conveyance is an obligation on the vendor, when he retains any portion of the property to which the deeds relate, and is entitled to retain the deeds, to produce them from time to time at the request of the person to whom the acknowledgment is given, to allow copies to be made, and to undertake for their safe custody (Conveyancing Act 1881, s. 9). The term "acknowledgment" is, in the United States, applied to the certificate of a public officer that an instrument was acknowledged before him to be the deed or act of the person who executed it. .
"Acknowledgment money" is the sum paid in some parts of England by copyhold tenants on the death of the lord of the manor.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
