Joseph Baxendale (1785–1872) was an English entrepreneur, known for rebuilding and expanding the Pickfords carrier company in the middle of the 19th century.

[1] Turnbull in his history of Pickfords traces the family relationships of the three new partners of 1817: Baxendale, Charles Inman and Zachary Langton.

He comments on the significance of a close-knit group of families from Kirkham, in the lowland Lancashire area of The Fylde south of Lancaster and west of Preston: the Birleys, Hornbys and Langtons.

[1] Charles Swainson was in partnership at the Preston cotton mill, distinct from the Bannister Hall calico printing works that Baxendale joined, with William Birley of Kirkham.

[4] Baxendale's London placement in 1806 was with the wholesaler Samuel Croughton, of St Paul's Churchyard, a distributor for Bannister Hall calico;[1] and he was representing Swainson family interests there.

[5] In April 1817, Baxendale bought a one-sixth share in Pickfords, financed largely from his wife's family money.

[7] Pickfords at this time was based in Manchester, and from 1814 began to use "sprung and guarded" caravans (fly-vans) for road transport, modelled on the stagecoach.

By 1828 the business had picked up after a slump, though reorganisation of its debt had taken a heavy toll on the Pickfords and their creditors, and the new partners had suffered repeated cash calls.

[1] In 1843 Baxendale bought out the financially weak Folkestone Harbour Company, with William Parry Richards, another South Eastern Railway director, and Lewis Cubitt.