He had a large family, and his latter days were embittered by pecuniary embarrassments, which form the subject of a chapter in D'Israeli's Calamities of Authors. The preface to the second volume of his History of the Saracens is dated from Cambridge castle, where he lay a prisoner for debt. He died in the year 1720. His chief work is The History of the Saracens, in 2 vols. 8vo, 1708-18, which long enjoyed a great reputation; unfortunately Ockley took as his main authority a MS. in the Bodleian? of Pseudo-Wakidi's Futúh al-Shám, which is rather historical romance than history.