Death

Tuesday, November 11, 2025 09:00PM

Franklin suffered from obesity throughout his middle age and elder years, which resulted in multiple health problems, including gout, which worsened as he aged. In poor health during the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787, he was rarely seen in public after then until his death.

Franklin died from pleuritic attack[153] at his home in Philadelphia on April 17, 1790, at age 84.[154] His last reported words, conveyed to his daughter, were, "a dying man can do nothing easy", after she suggested that he change position in bed and lie on his side so he could breathe more easily.[155][156] Franklin's death is described in the book The Life of Benjamin Franklin, quoting from the account of John Paul Jones:

... when the pain and difficulty of breathing entirely left him, and his family were flattering themselves with the hopes of his recovery, when an imposthume, which had formed itself in his lungs, suddenly burst, and discharged a quantity of matter, which he continued to throw up while he had power; but, as that failed, the organs of respiration became gradually oppressed; a calm, lethargic state succeeded; and on the 17th instant (April 1790), about eleven o'clock at night, he quietly expired, closing a long and useful life of eighty-four years and three months.[157]

Approximately 20,000 people attended Franklin's funeral, after which he was interred in Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia.[158][159] Upon learning of his death, the Constitutional Assembly in Revolutionary France entered into a state of mourning for a period of three days, and memorial services were conducted in honor of Franklin throughout the country.[160]

In 1728, at age 22, Franklin wrote what he hoped would be his own epitaph:

• The Body of B. Franklin Printer; Like the Cover of an old Book, Its Contents torn out, And stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be wholly lost: For it will, as he believ'd, appear once more, In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and Amended By the Author.[161]

Franklin's actual grave, however, as he specified in his final will, simply reads "Benjamin and Deborah Franklin."[162]

Tuesday, November 11, 2025 09:01PM