Mason died Oct. 25, 1786 in relative poverty. He was 58 years old. His wife was able to bury Charles in Christ Church Cemetery (Philadelphia) in an unmarked grave, and return with her 8 children to England due to the generosity of his Philadelphia associates, including Benjamin Franklin. Franklin is also buried at Christ Church.
Jeremiah Dixon died in Cockfield, England in Jan. 22, 1779, aged 45 years. He was buried in an unmarked grave in a Quaker cemetery in Staindrop, England. The term “Mason and Dixon’s Line” was first put into popular use during the Congressional debate on the Missouri Compromise (1820) establishing the boundary between slave and free states.