During the latter part of his life Brant visited different parts of America and twice journeyed as far as the Atlantic seaboard.  On these occasions he had the opportunity of talking over old campaigns with officers who had fought against him in the war, and he delighted his listeners with stirring stories of his experiences in the field.  On one occasion, when in Philadelphia, he was entertained in sumptuous fashion by Colonel Aaron Burr.  A dinner party was held in his honour, and among the guests were Talleyrand and Volney.  Early in the evening the War Chief was rather taciturn, and the other guests were somewhat disappointed.  But this was only a passing mood, from which Brant soon freed himself.  Launching into the conversation, he was soon the centre of attraction.

Though Captain Brant was able to pass his later years in comparative ease, his life was marred by the occurrence of two untoward events.  His eldest son, Isaac, was a reprobate over whom the father exercised little influence.  Isaac had been guilty of acts of violence and had begun to threaten Joseph Brant himself.  He was jealous of the numerous children of Catherine Brant and took occasion to offer her various insults.  In 1795 both father and son were at Burlington Heights, at a time when the Indians were receiving supplies from the provincial government.  Isaac, crazed with liquor, tried to assault his father in one of the lower rooms of an inn, but he was held in check by several of his youthful companions.

Captain Brant drew a dirk which he usually carried with him, and in the excitement of the moment inflicted a slight wound on Isaac’s hand.  The cut was not serious, but Isaac would not allow it to be properly treated, and subsequently died from an attack of brain fever.  The War Chief was sorely grieved at the result of his hasty action, and fretted about it until the end of his days.  He is said to have hung the dirk up in his room and to have often wept as he gazed upon it.  The other source of trouble to Brant was the revolt against his rule of a small minority among the tribes.  This movement was led by Brant’s old adversary, Red Jacket, and another chief, the Farmer’s Brother.  A council was held by the dissenters at Buffalo Creek in 1803, and Joseph Brant was formally deposed as head of the confederacy of the Six Nations.  But as this meeting had not been legally convoked, its decisions were of no validity among the Nations.  The following year, at another council, legitimately assembled, the tribesmen openly declared their confidence in the War Chief’s rule.

Because of Brant’s many services to the crown, the British government gave him a fine stretch of land on the north-west shore of Lake Ontario, near the entrance to Burlington Bay.  On his estate, known as Wellington Square, he erected a large two-storey house, in which he might spend the remaining years of his life.  A number of black slaves whom he had captured in the war were his servants and gave him every attention.  Brant is said to have subjected these negroes to a rigid discipline and to have been more or less of a taskmaster in his treatment of them.  In his declining years he was wont to gaze over the waters of Lake Ontario, remembering the country stretching from the southern shore where once he had struggled, and the valley of the Mohawk, where had been the lodges of his people.