from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
BILL PENAL, contracts. A written obligation, by which a debtor acknowledges
himself indebted in a certain sum, may one hundred dollars, and for the
payment of the debt binds himself in a larger sum, say two hundred dollars.
Bills penal do not frequently occur in modern practice; bonds, with
conditions, have superseded them. Steph. on Pl. 265, note. See 2 Vent. 198.
Bills-penal are sometimes called bills obligatory. Cro. Car. 515; 2 Vent.
106. But a bill obligatory is not necessarily a bill penal. Com. Dig.
Obligations, D.