EECORD. 759 RECORDING OF DEEDS. pleadings and papers including the judgment when filed together as a part of the record. Afterwards the records were kept by writing them in books instead of on parchment, and in a few jurisdictions today every item of a judi- cial record is entered in books which become the public records of the court. However, in many jurisdictions the record of a case is composed partly of entries in the clerk's books, and partly of the original pleadings and judgment filed in the proper office. A complete judicial record of an action should contain, in some form, the date of issue, the pleadings, the various necessary steps taken before trial, a minute of the fact of the trial, the appearances for the parties, the name of the judge before whom the cause was tried, the verdict of the jury or disposition by the court, and the final judgment. Under most practice acts, the successful party, in order to enforce his rights under the determination of his case by the court, must attend to the entiy of judgment by presenting to the clerk of the court an instru- ment containing a statement of the determination of the action and an order for the pi-oper relief, which is then signed by a judge or a clerk for the court, and entered. If he is careless the record may remain incomplete, and no process can be issued to carry out the direction of the court. The record of a court is conclusive evidence of the facts which it sets forth as between the parties thereto, and cannot be attacked col- laterally. See Ple.^dixg; Procedure: Res JUDic.TA. and consult the authorities referred to under Pleading ; Practice. REC'ORDE, EoDERT fc.l510-5S). An English mathematician, born at Tenby, in Pembroke. He was educated at Oxford, and was elected fellow of All Souls' in 1531. He afterwards went to Cambridge and studied medicine, receiving his degree in 1545. In London he is said to have become Court physician. He became comp- troller of the mint at Bristol (1549), and general surveyor of the mines and money (1551). He died while imprisoned for debt in King's Bench Prison. Southwark. Recorde was one of the first in England to adopt the Copernican sys- tem, then in its infancy. He was the first to introduce algebra into England, and his views of the science were very advanced for the time. His invention of the sign of equality, =, given in his 'iVhctst07ie of Witte, and his method of extracting the square root of polynomials, are the only evidences of originality generally recog- nized by mathematicians. The equality sign seems, however, to have been a medi;pval abbre- viation for est. His text-books were recognized authorities in England for many years, and it was more than a century after his death that they ceased to be used in the schools. His chief works were: The flrounde of Artes (1.540, and frequent editions until 1699) : The Whetstone of 'Witte. or the Secmid Part of Aritfimetike. a work on algebra (1557) : The Pathway to Knowledge, or the First Principles of Geometry (1551) ; The Castle of Knowledqc; a Treatise on Astronomy and the Sphere (1551) : The Urinal of Phi/sick, a work on medicine (1547). RECORDER. In England, the sole judge of a borough court of Quarter Sessions, and fre- quentlv "judge of the borough civil court of record'. Onlv barristers of five years' standing are eligible, "and the appointment is for life or during good behavior. The recorder does not take charge of the administrative duties of the Court of Quarter Sessions (q.v.). In most bor- oughs he may practice law, as his salary is often merely nominal. He is appointed by the Home Secretary on behalf of the Crown. This title is also applied to the chief judge of the Mayor's Court of London, and to one of the judges of the Central Criminal Court. The title is seldom applied to judges in the fnited States. The principal instance of note is in Xow York, where one of the judges of the Court of General Sessions is called the Recorder. The name was derived from that of the English judge. He devotes his entire time to his duties, just as the other criminal judges, not being al- lowed to practice. It is an elective office. RECORDER. The name of a musical instru- ment formerly in use in Great Britain, somewhat like a flageolet, but with the lower part wider than the upper, and a mouth-piece resembling the beak of a bird. Its pitch was an octave higher than the flute, and it had a pleasing tone. Its compass was about two octaves, from P to f^ RECORDING ACTS. Under this head are included all statutes providing for the recording or registration of conveyances, liens, and incum- brances of every description, affecting the title to real and personal property. The chief object of such laws is to provide a means of giving public notice of the existence and character of all instru- ments afl'ecting titles to property, and thereby prevent fraud and render titles more secure than xmder the common law. Such acts are not usually mandatory in their terms, but in eflect they render it unsafe for a purchaser or incumbrancer to neglect to have his instrument of title re- corded. For example : if A sells a piece of land to B, and the latter neglects to have his deed re- corded, and A subsequently executes another deed- of the same land to C, an innocent purchaser for value, the latter will take precedence over B if he has his deed recorded first. Recording acts usually provide for the establishment of record offices, and inspection by the public at reasonable hours. Usually the whole instrument must be copied in the record books, but sometimes only the substance is noted. Instruments presented for record should be duly acknowledged or exe- cuted in the form required by statute. The efl"ect of recording is to give constructive notice of the existence of an instrument, which is made equiva- lent to actual notice. See Recordlno of Deeds; Title. Registration of. RECORDING OF DEEDS. At common law, the transfer of title to real property by livery of seisin (q.v.) was a public and notorious act, making unnecessary any formal public record of the transaction. The modem practice of record- ing transfers of property on public records was therefore unknown to the common law. The Statute of Uses (27 Henry VIII., c. 10), which made permissible the conveyance of real estate by deed privately executed, gave rise to the neces- sity of some method of publicly recording all instruments of conveyance. The first step in this direction was taken" by the Statute of Enroll- ments (27 Henry VIll.. c. 16), which provided for the enrollment or recording of all deeds of bargain and sale. As the statute did not in terms apply to leases of real estate, the lawyers
