He died in 1841 in Paris after a long illness, quoting his favourite Horace on his deathbed, and receiving extreme unction. He left two sons, Alexander, a physician, accessit at the Val-de-Grace examination, 1828, and William (1803–1873), a French journalist, translator of German works, and editor or compiler of the "Dictionnaire de la Conversation", 52 vols., completed in 1843, to a large extent a translation of Brockhaus. This William had a son, William Alexander (1831–1863), who contributed to the new edition of the "Dictionnaire", and published an illustrated work on French monuments, also a daughter, Mathilde (1842–1884?), who studied under Rosa Bonheur, exhibited at the Paris Salon, 1861–8, and taught drawing in Paris.