In 1778, he listed his occupations as master weaver and silk merchant. His mother died in 1762, and when his father died in 1772, Joseph inherited his father's house, looms and workshop as well as a vineyard and quarry in Couzon-au-Mont d’Or. Joseph initially helped his father operate his loom, but the work proved too arduous, so Jacquard was placed first with a bookbinder and then with a maker of printers' type. Barret also introduced Joseph to learned societies and scholars.

He was finally taught by his brother-in-law, Jean-Marie Barret, who ran a printing and book selling business. Although his father was a man of property, Joseph received no formal schooling and remained illiterate until he was 13. However, only Joseph and his sister Clémence (born 7 November 1747) survived to adulthood. He was one of nine children of Jean Charles dit Jacquard, a master weaver of Lyon, and his wife, Antoinette Rive. Joseph Marie Charles dit Jacquard was born into a conservative Catholic family in Lyon, France, on 7 July 1752. Thus, Joseph's grandfather was Bartholomew Charles dit Jacquard. To distinguish the various branches, the community gave them nicknames Joseph’s branch was called “Jacquard” Charles. In his grandfather's generation, several branches of the Charles family lived in Lyon's Couzon-Au-Mont d’Or suburb (on Lyon’s north side, along the Saône River). He played an important role in the development of the earliest programmable loom (the ' Jacquard loom'), which in turn played an important role in the development of other programmable machines, such as an early version of digital compiler used by IBM to develop the modern day computer. Joseph Marie Charles dit (called or nicknamed) Jacquard ( French: 7 July 1752 – 7 August 1834) was a French weaver and merchant. Worked as apprentice and learned bookbinding

Jacquard weaving software