In 1827 when Joseph was eight years old, the family moved into a newly-built house in Hamilton Terrace, St. John's Wood, London. He spent his early career articled to the noted engineer Sir John Macneill working on railway projects and amassed sufficient experience (partly in China and Ireland) in land drainage and reclamation to enable him to set up his own London consulting practice in 1842. In 1845 the house in Hamilton Terrace was sold and Joseph married Maria Kough, from County Kilkenny, in Ireland. At the time he was working so hard on the expansion of the railway network that two years later, in 1847, he suffered a nervous breakdown.