He was a citizen of London, a liveryman of the Haberdashers' Company in 1823, and an active member of the City Philosophical Society.
Hydraulic engineering was his favourite pursuit, but a work on this subject, which he had designed and for which he had prepared extensive materials, he did not live to write.
In October 1837 he projected and established The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal, a monthly periodical, which he himself edited.
He soon after purchased a weekly publication, called The Architect and Building Gazette, and after conducting it for some time united it to the Journal.
Laxton was the surveyor to Baron de Goldsmid's estate at Brighton, where he laid out a large part of the new town in the parish of Hove, and designed and built many of the houses.