At Shortlands, near Bromley, Kent, while in a period of preparation for Dorothy's wedding, she died of heart failure on 12 October 1887, aged 61. Her last words were reported to have been: "Oh, if I could live four weeks longer! but no matter, no matter!" Her final book, "An Unknown Country", was published by Macmillan in 1887, the year of her death. Dorothy married Alexander Pilkington in 1887, but they divorced in 1911 and she went on to marry Captain Richards of Macmine Castle. She and Alexander had one son, John Mulock Pilkington. He married Freda Roskelly and they had a son and daughter.