precognoscev.

1661 in R. Wodrow Hist. Sufferings Church of Scotl. (1828) I. 133/2 The manner of the crimes objected..will not be found expedient to be tossed in public..but rather to be precognosced upon by some..judicious persons.

1712 in C. A. Malcolm Minutes Justices of Peace Lanarkshire (1931) 134 Major Gavin Hamilton..conveened the witnesses afternamed before him, in order to precognosce the matter underwritten.

1753 Trial J. Stewart 93 The pannel's wife and his children, who, by law, cannot be called as witnesses against him, have been precognosced, or judicially examined, and..their declarations are proposed to be produced in this trial.

1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scotl. 764 In precognoscing witnesses preparatory to a proof in a jury trial in a civil cause, the agent ought to avoid every thing likely to raise objections against their admissibility.

1888 Daily News 17 July 5/2 Pending the trial of the accused, the Procurator-Fiscal ‘precognosces’ witnesses, and collects all available evidence, which is afterwards formulated in a detailed and printed indictment supplied to counsel, jury, and Court officials.

1901 Scotsman 2 Mar. 12/3 He respectfully submitted that the defence had no power to precognosce police officers.

1966 New Statesman 16 Dec. 905/3 No one has pointed out that in Scotland..the proper method of preparing for the defence of a criminal charge is to precognosce (i.e. conduct a preliminary examination of) all witnesses including police officers.

2000 Guardian 5 June ii. 15/2 You might also wonder why nobody thought of changing the rules that left the prosecution with just 10 days to precognosce more than 100 defence witnesses.