It will be observed that the form of acknowledgment in the different Fines is very variable. To explain this we must refer our readers to Blackstone. (book ii. c. 21) for a minute description of the four different lands of Fines, and the names by which they were respectively designated. It will be sufficient here to state that in—
   1. "The deforciant, or cognizor, acknowledges a former feoffment to have been made by him to the cognizee, or plaintiff, in order to avoid the formality of an actual feoffment.
   2. " The cognizor merely acknowledges the right to be in the cognizee, without naming any preceding gift. 
   3. "The cognizor acknowledges the right to be in the cognizee ; and grants, for himself and his heirs, that the reversion, after the particular estate determines, shall go to the cognizee. This sort of Fine was commonly used to pass a reversionary interest which was in the cognizor; because of such reversions, there could be no feoffment supposed, as the possession at the time belonged to a third person.
   4. "The cognizee, after the right was acknowledged to be in him, granted back again to the cognizor, or perhaps to some stranger, some estate in the premises." 
   Thus much it is necessary to cite from Blackstone's treatise, in order to explain the varied forms in which the Fines appear, and to help the genealogist and topographer in deducing his information from the particular Fine that may be before him. For the rest, the reader will consult with advantage the passage from which these extracts are taken.
   But it was not merely to the transfer of landed property that this process was confined.¹ It was the mode adopted for recording all contracts, and the settlement
   ¹ Dugdale, in his 'Origines,' cap. 33, lays it down, that this kind of "solemn memorial" was anciently adopted for " the better manifesting the tenor of any contract upon bargains and sales, or other conclusion,