He married a Maori, Paparu, who bore him a daughter, Fanny, but Paparu died three years later when giving birth to a second child, who also died. Edward subsequently married Nikuru, daughter of the Maori chief who had pleaded for his release from captivity, and she died in giving birth to their daughter Nani. These marriages were not solemnised or registered because at the time there was no christian minister in South Island and there was no system for registering births, marriages and deaths. So exact date of `marriages by local custom` is not known. The first Wesleyan minister is thought to have gone to New Zealand about 1840, the first Anglican priest shortly afterwards.
When the whales no longer came to Otago and the Weller brothers` business was heading for bankruptcy, Edward returned to NSW and became a landowner in the Hunter Valley. He seems to have found it hard to adapt to `civilisation` and lived a solitary life, which ended tragically when he stubbornly refused to leave his cottage when the Hunter river flooded. He broke into the roof space, but was drowned nevertheless.