Family and Education

bap. 18 Nov. 1700, 2nd s. of Andrew Archer, M.P., by Elizabeth, da. of Sir Samuel Dashwood, M.P., and bro. of Thomas, 1st Lord Archer. educ. Eton c.1716; Trinity, Oxf. 1718; M. Temple 1718; I. Temple 1723, called 1726. m. 22 Dec. 1743, Lady Elizabeth Montagu, da. of George, 1st Earl of Halifax, s.p. suc. uncle Thomas Archer 23 May 1743.

Offices Held

Biography

Archer sat for Warwick on the family interest. His only recorded speech after 1754 was on 18 Mar. 1761, when he proposed an address to the Crown to grant a pension to the Speaker.1 He is not included in Fox’s list of Members who favoured the peace preliminaries, nor is he known to have voted against them. On the division of 18 Feb. 1764 on general warrants he was classed by Jenkinson as an absent friend. On 20 Feb. 1765 he was excused attending the call of the House because of illness.2 No vote by him is recorded in this Parliament, and the party leaders did not know what to make of him: Rockingham in July 1765 classed him as ‘doubtful’ and in November 1766 (incorrectly) as ‘Bedford’, Townshend in January 1767 (again incorrectly) as ‘Rockingham’, and Newcastle in March as ‘doubtful or absent’. Probably he was absent a good deal during the last years of his life.

He died 16 Mar. 1768.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes

• 1. Walpole, Mems. Geo. III, i. 40.
• 2. Harris’s ‘Debates’.