Bolts is said to have attempted to revive his fortunes in France, setting up an enterprise near Paris, but the outbreak of war once again destroyed his hopes. He returned to England in 1800, where he attempted unsuccessfully to interest the East India Company in obtaining supplies of copper from Anatolia to sell in India. He then moved to Lisbon where in the 1760s, before joining the East India Company, he had worked in the diamond trade. He made his last will in Lisbon in August 1805 and died, it is said, in a Paris poorhouse (hôpital) in 1808.