Joseph L. Roberts spent the remainder of his lifetime in Mississippi in the service of the Bacon Trustees, dying at Natchez on 28 March 1853. During those twelve years he acquired a plantation with over one hundred slaves, and so ably managed the trust's business that recoveries averaged better than 50 percent along with accrued interest and collection costs. Among the valuable properties that passed to the trust was the ownership of the Vicksburg to Jackson Railroad, the principal asset of the Commercial and Railroad Bank of Vicksburg.

While Roberts’ recovery efforts were indeed remarkable it is well to remember that others besides his principal were attempting to collect claims in Mississippi: Baring Brothers, the Brown brothers, even the Bank of England, all were large claimants with extensive ongoing collection agencies in the state. The Browns, for example, paid off the federal government's claim against the Agricultural Bank for the unsettled deposit and succeeded to its position as that bank's principal creditor. In consequence of their heavy involvement with Peter Lapice, a speculator with properties in Louisiana and Mississippi, they gained control of his four plantations. For more than a decade they managed his enterprises and invested over $100,000 in improvements.