Historical cause of death 1500s-1700s
What did surfeit mean on a death certificate?
On a death record, a surfeit meant death blamed on excess, of food, of drink, or famously of cold water taken while overheated. In modern terms it usually pointed to no single condition; often heat stroke, heart failure, or acute illness. The old bills of mortality count surfeits every week; the verdicts came from parish searchers reading a body's last meal as its killer. Expect it on records mostly 1500s-1700s.
Also written on records as: surfeit of drink, excess.
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Related terms
Browse the full genealogy records glossary for more occupations, causes of death, and legal terms.
FAQs
What is surfeit called today?+
No single condition; often heat stroke, heart failure, or acute illness, broadly speaking. Doctors of the period diagnosed without laboratory tests, so one label often covered several conditions we would now separate. This page explains historical record language and is not medical advice.
How was surfeit written on death records?+
Clerks and doctors also wrote surfeit of drink and excess. Spelling wandered from register to register, so check every variant before you decide a record is missing or wrong.
Where do these definitions come from?+
They are drawn from period dictionaries, government archive glossaries, and standard genealogy references, cross-checked against each other; provenance is documented with the dataset. Inside AncestorIQ, Deep Research reads the record itself and explains terms like this in context, against your ancestor's own document.
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