WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

cognisance
    n 1: having knowledge of; "he had no awareness of his mistakes";
         "his sudden consciousness of the problem he faced"; "their
         intelligence and general knowingness was impressive" [syn:
         awareness, consciousness, cognizance, cognisance,
         knowingness] [ant: incognizance]

Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

COGNISANCE, practice. Sometimes signifies jurisdiction and judicial power,
an sometimes the hearing of a matter judicially. It is a term used in the
acknowledgment of a fine. See Vaughan's Rep. 207.



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

COGNISANCE, pleading. Where the defendant in an action of replevin (not
being entitled to the distress or goods which are the subject of the
replevin) acknowledges the taking of the distress, and insists that such
taking was legal, not because he himself had a right to distrain on his own
account, but because he made the distress by the command of another, who had
a right to distrain on the goods which are the subject of the suit. Lawes on
Pl. 35, 36; 4 Bouv. Inst. n. 3571.