In 1847 Desbarats bought many properties and tracts of land, including one in the Chaudière valley where gold was being prospected, and a mining tract north of Lake Huron called the Desbarats Location. He was secretary of the Montreal Mining Company in 1847 and became president of the St Lawrence Mining Company in 1854. Desbarats married three times, first to Henriette Dionne, daughter of Amable Dionne. After she died, Desbarats remarried in 1841 to Charlotte Selby, daughter of the doctor William Selby, who had died a few years earlier; there was some resistance to the marriage as Desbarats was perceived to come from a lower social rank than the daughter of a prominent doctor. Last he married Jessie-Louise Pothier, daughter of Legislative Councillor Toussaint Pothier. His estate in Montreal was named Rose-Pré. Desbarats died in Montreal on 12 November 1864. His son George-Édouard inherited the printing plant in Ottawa in 1865 and continued to expand the business.