Whereas

This word implies a recital, and in general cannot be used in the direct and positive averment of a fact in a declaration or plea. Those facts which are directly denied by the terms of the general issue, or which may, by the established usage of pleading, be specially traversed, must be averred in positive and direct terms; but facts, however material, which are not directly denied by the terms of the general issue, though liable to be contested under it, and which, according to the usage of pleading, cannot be specially tra-versed, may be alleged in the declaration by way of recital, under a whereas.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.