Suffering severely from gout, he retired from the navy on account of ill-health in January 1705, stood down from the council of the Lord High Admiral in June 1705 and gave up his seat in Parliament in 1708. He died at his home, Lawrence House in Canterbury, on 24 January 1709 and was buried at St Paul's Church in Canterbury. In November 2004 Peter Caruana, Chief Minister of Gibraltar, unveiled a statue of Rooke as part of the 300th anniversary celebration of the capture of Gibraltar.