Joshua Lazarus, the son of Sephardic shopkeepers, grew up in Charleston—the thirteenth child in a family of seventeen that spanned 27 years between the first and last-born. Of his numerous siblings—including Leah and Benjamin. Joshua was closest to his sister Emma, just one year younger than himself. They maintained a close relationship even after Joshua married, at the age of 39, in 1835. In 1840, Joshua and his wife Phebe took Emma with them on a trip to France, where all three had their portraits painted.

Lazarus had immense curiosity, and enjoyed travel throughout his life. As a young man, he traveled to Europe with his friend Jacob Clavius Levy on a study tour. While visiting Liverpool on this trip, the two young Americans fell for the same girl — Fanny Yates, the daughter of a well-to-do Liverpool family. Rather than compete with his friend for her affections, Lazarus withdrew his attentions and returned to Charleston in disappointment. Yet the encounter was not a complete failure; as it turned out, Lazarus had also met his future wife. Nearly twenty years after his first trip to Liverpool, Lazarus returned to marry Fanny’s older sister Phebe, two years his senior. They returned to Charleston to live, and their son Edgar Marks was born two years later.

Joshua Lazarus was instrumental in the introduction of gas lighting into the city of Charleston, and served as the president of the Gas Light Company for sixteen years, from 1840 to 1856. He was also a major property holder in Charleston and served as president of a bank in Cheraw, South Carolina. Lazarus also played an important role in the governance of congregation Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, serving as chairman of the building committee that constructed and dedicated the new synagogue building in 1841, and as parnas for a decade, from 1851 until his death in 1861. He died in Cheraw.