RECORD, a register ; an authentic or official copy of any writing, or account of any facts and proceedings whether public or private, entered in a book for pres ervation; or the book containing such copy or account ; as, the records of statutes or of judicial courts ; the records of a town or parish ; the records of a family.—In a popular sense, the term records is applied to all public documents preserved in a recognized repository; but, in legal sense or the term, rec ords are contemporaneous statements of the proceedings of those higher courts of law which are distinguished as courts of record, written upon rolls of parch ment. Records are said to be of three kinds :-1.. judicial records ; 2. ministe rial records on oath, being offices or inquisitions found; 3. records made by conveyance or consent, as fines, recover ies, or deeds enrolled.—In the court of session, a record is a judicial minute subscribed by the counsel of the parties in a cause, and by the lord ordinary, whereby the parties mutually agree to hold certain pleadings, as containing their full and final statement of facts and pleas in law. This record forms the basis
of the future argument, and of the deci sion of the cause.—The term records, in Scotch law, is usually applied to public registers for decrees of courts, deeds, in struments, and probative writings of every kind.—Authentic memorial ; as, the records of past ages.—Court of record, is a court whose acts and judicial proceedings are enrolled on parchment or in books for a perpetual memorial ; and their records are the highest evidence of facts, and their truth cannot be called in question.—Debt of record, is a debt which appears to he due by the evidence of a court of record, as upon a judgment or a recognizance.— Trio/ by record is where a matter of record is pleaded, and the opposite party pleads that there is no such record. In this case, the trial is by inspection of the record itself, no other evidence being admissible.