In conveyancing. A species of common assurance, or mode of conveying lands by matter of record, formerly in frequent use In England. It was in the nature and form of an action at law, carried regularly through, and ending in a recovery of the lands against the tenant of the freehold; which recovery, being a supposed adjudication of the right, bound all persons, and vested a free and absolute fee- simple in the recoverer. 2 Bl. Comm. 357. Christy v. Burch. 25 Fla. 942, 2 South. 258. Common recoveries were abolished by the statutes 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 74