Following the death of his wife, he returned to Middletown and helped look after his mother and sisters. By the 1840 federal census there was one head of family, one male over 16 years, no males under 16 years, no females over 16, and three "others" The couple owned an indigo plantation with some 400 slaves in or near St. Mary's, Georgia (Ziebarth, John. Direct connections : Ziebarth-McGill ancestry. New York : Ziemag Publishing, 1997, pg. 93, 95).