Jefferson was born in 1774, in Plymouth, England. His father, Thomas Jefferson, whom Garrick is reputed to have placed on the stage, was manager of the Plymouth Theatre. His mother was a Miss May, a woman of great beauty and charm, who died when he was an infant.
Joseph was well trained as a player in his father's company, but disliking his stepmother and being republican in sympathy, he came to America in 1795, engaged by Charles Stuart Powell, manager of the new Federal Street Theatre in Boston, at seventeen dollars a week. This engagement failing (the theatre had not prospered), he joined the company of the John Street Theatre in New York, appearing there first on February 10, 1796, as Squire Richard in The Provoked Husband. In New York he lodged at the house of a Mrs. Fortune, a Scotch woman, on John Street where he remained, and then the Park Theatre, till 1803, playing comedy roles, especially old men, and being greatly esteemed by his fellow players and the public. In 1803 he was offered the place of comedian in the company of the Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, and accepted, perhaps because in New York he was overshadowed by John Hodgkinson. For the next twenty-five years, familiarly known as "Old Jefferson" because of his skill in playing elderly parts, he was a pillar in the fine company at the Chestnut Street and a beloved citizen of the town. He brought to the theatre the best traditions and to private life dignity and kindliness and virtue, so that his influence was doubly strong in establishing the playhouse in America. In 1830, after Warren had left the Chestnut Street management and the theatre had fallen on hard days, Jefferson was stung by the failure of a younger public to support his benefit, and left both theatre and the city. For two years he wandered to other towns and suffered in quick succession the loss of two daughters and his son John, who was acting with him. Then his wife died. Broken by gout, bereavement, and grief at his fallen fortunes, Jefferson himself died in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on August 4, 1832. His acting style was evidently easy, natural, and free from excesses, and gained its comic force from the delicacy of his inflections and byplay, and the charm and rich playful humor of his personality.
Jefferson was said physically to resemble President Jefferson, and the two men had met and attempted to discover a common ancestry.
Jefferson was married to Euphemia Fortune. They later lived in Philadelphia, where he reared his family of eight children (a ninth died in infancy). Seven of these children went on the stage.
