He attended the common schools in New York Mills, and Whitestown Seminary and Business College. Then, he became a grocer. He married Adelaide Hoag (1848–1936), and they had two children.

Ackroyd was Supervisor of the Town of Whitestown in 1882; and a member of the New York State Assembly (Oneida Co., 2nd D.) in 1884. He was a member of the New York State Senate (36th D.) in 1907 and 1908.

He died suddenly on March 15, 1915, at his home in Utica, "while reading a newspaper"; and was buried at the Glenside Cemetery in New York Mills.

• Official New York from Cleveland to Hughes by Charles Elliott Fitch (Hurd Publishing Co., New York and Buffalo, 1911, Vol. IV; pg. 317 and 366)
• Biographical sketches of the members of the Legislature in The Evening Journal Almanac (1884)
• Ex-State Senator Joseph Ackroyd in NYT on March 16, 1915