About the year 1819 he was retired on half pay to Ennis in County Clare, where he was appointed to the Commission of the Peace, and generally lived the life of a country gentleman.
In 1840 he emigrated to South Australia on the Birman with his wife Mary, née MacCarthy, and their five children, arriving at Port Adelaide on 17 December 1840.
[4] Around 1840 Bagot selected a section of 1,500 acres (610 ha) at Koonunga on the River Light, on which he ran sheep in partnership with Frederick Hansborough Dutton.
[6] Towards the end of 1842 his youngest son Charles Samuel Bagot came across mineral specimens on his father's property near the site of the present Kapunda.
In the first council Bagot distinguished himself by his opposition to Colonel Robe's proposals for endowing selected religious bodies ("State aid") and for imposing a royalty on minerals.
In 1853 Bagot built the family residence "Nurney House" on Stanley Street (later 127 Kingston Terrace), North Adelaide, later largely rebuilt around 1930.