George Crosfield was a wholesale grocer in Warrington who also had interests in a sugar-refining business in Liverpool.
From September 1807, a time close to his 15th birthday, he was apprenticed for 6 years to Anthony Clapham, a druggist and chemist in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
[4] In 1814, Joseph's apprenticeship having finished, at the age of 21 he decided to establish his own soap making business in Warrington.
At this time soap manufacturing was growing rapidly in the Mersey bad recently developed canals and river navigations in the area which allowed for easier transport of the raw materials into the factories and for the distribution of the finished products.
A number of new large soaperies had recently been established in the nearby towns of St Helens, Runcorn and Liverpool.
Rather than manufacturing it in his Bank Quay site, he took over a bankrupt alum works in St Helens, Merseyside with his older brother James (1787–1852) and Josias Christopher Gamble.
[16] Joseph Crosfield was also deeply involved in the political, civic and religious life of Warrington.
In addition to his continuing Quaker activities, he was a Radical in politics, often campaigning on issues relating to both of these movements.
[17] In 1819 Joseph Crosfield married Elizabeth Goad from the village of Baycliffe in the Furness area of Lancashire.
In 1826 he leased a plot of land nearby at White Cross on which he built a new house and in which he lived for the rest of his life.
[19] The firm of Joseph Crosfield & Sons, Ltd. continued to thrive and grow after his death, producing a variety of chemicals.
The business passed to Sir Arthur Henry Crosfield, who built Witanhurst, a house in North London, on the proceeds of the sale of the company, and was returned for Parliament as the Liberal MP for Warrington.
[21] In 1997 its Warrington speciality chemicals division that made ingredients for detergents and toothpastes was acquired by ICI[22] and in 2001, Ineos Capital purchased the company.