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Edward ARCHER (1842–1907)
His brother William Samuel ARCHER (1852–1917)
St Mary Magdalen section: Row 32, Grave L55

Edward Archer was born in Oxford in early 1842 and baptised at St Michael’s Church on 9 March, and William Samuel Archer was born in Oxford in 1852 and baptised at St Aldate’s Church on 4 August. They were two of the fourteen children of the brewer John Archer (born in Oxford in c.1804) and Frances Leaver (born in Westminster, London in c.1808).
See also separate grave of their brother John Archer junior.

Edward and William’s parents began their married life in London, where their daughter Fanny was born in 1829. By the following year they had moved to St Michael’s parish in Oxford, where they had their next seven children baptised: Elizabeth (1830), Ann (1831), John (1833), Thomas (1835), James (1836), Ellen (1838), and Matilda (1840, died 1841). At the time of the 1841 census John Archer, described as a victualler, was living at Market Street with his wife Frances and their seven youngest children. Their next two children were also baptised at St Michael's Church: Edward (1842) and Charles (1843).

They were living in St Giles’s Street when their eleventh child, the second named Matilda, was baptised at St Giles’s Church on 8 July 1846; and in St Aldate’s parish when the last three children were baptised: Alfred George (1848), William Samuel (1852), and Rosa Anna (1854).

At the time of the 1851 census John and Frances Archer were home in St Aldate’s Street with ten of their children: Fanny (21), Elizabeth (20), Ann (19), John (18), who was a cooper, Thomas (17) who was a brewer’s labourer, James(14), Edward (9), Charles (8), Matilda (5), and (Alfred) George (3).

In 1861 their address was more precisely given as Isis House, St Aldate’s. John (56) was still working as a brewer and lived there with his wife Frances (53) and nine of their children: Frances (32), Elizabeth (31), Thomas (26), who was a coal agent; James (25), Ellen (24), Edward (19), who was a clerk, Matilda (15), William (8), and Rosa (6). Edward and William’s great-aunt Mrs Mary Crutch (84) was also living with the family.

The two brothers then went their separate ways:

Edward Archer (born 1842)

At the time of the 1871 census Edward (28) was a railway clerk, boarding at Shoreditch.

He is hard to find in the 1881 census.

At the time of the 1891 census Edward (38) was living on his own means and paying a visit to Miss Ellen Edwards (31) and her cousin Charles Edwards (31) who lived at Church House, Summertown.

By 1899 Edward had returned permanently to Oxford and was running a lodging house at 13 and 14 St John Street.

At the time of the 1901 census he was a single man of 54, described as a lodging-house keeper and living at 14 St John Street. His relations Thomas Archer, a widower of 58 born in St Aldate’s parish, and Miss Elizabeth Archer, aged 24 and born in Cowley St John, were paying him a visit.

Edward Archer died in 1907:

† Edward Archer died at 14 St John Street at the age of 64 on 13 February 1907 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 18 February (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

William Samuel Archer (born 1852)

By the time of the 1871 census William (18) was working as a coal merchant’s assistant and living in St Aldate’s with his parents and his sister Rosa (17), plus their servant. His father now described himself as coal merchant rather than a brewer.

In the fourth quarter of 1875 in Oxford, William Samuel Archer married Louisa Elizabeth Hambridge, who was born in Buscot, Berkshire, and they had the following children (the first born very quickly after the wedding):

• Elizabeth Fanny Archer (born in Cirencester in 1875, and baptised at Siddington Church on 25 December)
• John Archer (born in Luther Street, Oxford in 1878, reg. third quarter).

At the time of his daughter Elizabeth’s baptism in 1875, William Samuel Archer, who was then in Cirencester, described himself as a contractor.

At some point between 1875 and 1878 he brought his family back to Oxford, where he was admitted free on 16 August 1878. At the time of the 1881 census William (29) was an unemployed builder’s clerk living at Luther Street with his wife Louisa (25) and their children Elizabeth (5) and John (2).

By the time of the 1891 census William Samuel Archer (37) was a gun tool maker, living in Aston Manor, Warwickshire (at 459 Leckfield Road) with his wife Louisa (36) and their children Elizabeth (15), who was a dressmaker, and John (12), who was at school.

William Samuel Archer’s wife Louisa died at Aston Manor in early 1894 at the age of 38.

In the last quarter of 1895 at Aston, their daughter Elizabeth Fanny Archer married Thomas Mullen.

William Samuel Archer is hard to find in the 1901 census.

In about 1902/3 their son John Archer appears to have married a girl called Annie (born in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, in c.1881), as he declared he had been married for nine years at the time of the 1911 census.

Again in 1911 William Samuel Archer is hard to find, but by 1914 he had moved to 13 St John Street in Oxford (one of the two houses owned by his brother until his death in 1907). He died there in 1917:

† William Samuel Archer died at 13 St John Street at the age of 64 on 2 January 1917 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 6 January (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

His effects came to £2,506 2s. 3d.

---

Children of William Samuel and Louisa Elizabeth Archer

• Elizabeth Fanny Archer, Mrs Mullen (born 1875) was living at 70 Markham Avenue, Walthamstow in 1911 with her husband Thomas Mullen (33), who was a stockbroker’s clerk). She had already had nine children, but only five were still alive: Thomas William Archer Mullen (14), who was a warehouse boy, and Kate Constance Mullen (9), Sheila Patricia Mullen (3), Mary Magdalene Mullen (1), and Patrick Denis Mullen (ten months). They had three more children in the West Ham area: Frances (later in 1911), Eileen (1913), and Moyra (1916). Mrs Elizabeth Mullen died in the south-west Essex district at the age of 62 in 1937.
• John Archer (born 1878) was working as a tool-setter & maker at the time of the 1911 census and living at 80 Village Road, Aston Manor with his wife Annie (29) and their children John (7), Louisa (6), William (4), Louis Hannah (2), George (1), and baby Lucy Emma (two months), who died in 1913.