Archer Family History

ARCHER FAMILY HISTORY

(In the 1980's when I became interested in researching my family tree, I sent a very roughly typed up "tree" to my cousin in England and was very fortunate that she and her husband also became interested and undertook most of the English research listed for the Archer family and supplied the notes typed below - Thank you Audrey and Dave for all your help)

This family history, as far as the Archers are concerned anyway, starts at Lodsworth, in West Sussex, England. We were directed there when we discovered that our great-grandfather Anthony Archer was born there on 15 November 1844 and that his father, Richard, and mother, Jane Rapson, were married there in October 1840.

Research continued by way of the International Genealogical Index for Sussex. Of 152 "Archer" entries covering the whole of Sussex, 28 are in Lodsworth and another 30 in towns and villages within five miles or so.

This, then, is where the Archers put down roots, and it appears that they chose well.

Ten years ago Lodsworth was rural England as it should be - untouched by the second half of the twentieth century; no motorways, no concrete and glass buildings - even the railway deserted the area in the nineteen-sixties. The nearest towns, Midhurst and Petworth, are about six miles from each other. The road between them lies East to West, and half way along that road, another minor road stretches north to Lodsworth, about 1½ miles distance, and on to Lurgashall.

A crow, flying due south from Lodsworth, would cross the Midhurst - Petworth road, the river Rother (the West Sussex variety - there is another Rother in East Sussex), and in a few miles more the South Downs, almost parallel to the road and river. Ten miles further and the crow would reach the sea at Bognor Regis.

The Rother valley attracts artists like bees to a honey-pot, and in Lodsworth churchyard the illustrator of both the "Wind in the Willows" and "Winnie the Pooh" - E.H. Shepard - lies buried.

Lodsworth, while the Archers lived there, must have been dominated by the big house at Petworth. The house, which dates back to 1309, was rebuilt in 1688 and, until conveyed to the National Trust in 1947, was owned by a series of singular - not to say, sometimes, very eccentric - men. Royalty visited from time to time. In 1763 the 3rd Earl of Egremont gained the ownership, and lived there for a further sixty-five years.

The National Trust booklet on Petworth says that Lord Egremont "grew up a remarkable man. Humane, cultured and distinguished both as a patron of the arts and as agriculturist, he introduced a golden age at Petworth" ..... Benjamin Haydon, the history painter, wrote that "his greatest pleasure was sharing with highest and humblest the luxuries of his vast income. The very animals at Petworth seemed happier than in any other spot on earth". And "during the years of deepest agricultural depression, he continued to give annual feasts at Petworth for his own tenantry and workers". He obviously made a great impact in the area.

William Cobbett, farmer and an early travel writer toured Sussex in the 1820's, and said of the Petworth area "There is, besides, no misery to be seen here. I have seen no wretchedness in Sussex; nothing to be at all compared to that which I have seen in other parts; and as to these villages in the South Downs, they are beautiful to behold ...... I saw, and with great delight, a pig at almost every labourer's house. The houses are good and warm; and the gardens some of the very best that I have seen in England".

So the environment seemed, to say the least, favourable. Cobbett was writing at a time of agricultural depression - and this is where at least three generations of Archer family, and almost certainly more, lived.

The first entry is the christening on 23 February 1695 of Mary, daughter of William Archer. From that date, until an entry dated 16 April 1769 there are 17 christenings, all fathered by a William Archer. This seems to cover three generations - the first William had two boys and three girls. His son William (6 October 1697) we think married Mary Reves on 15 May 1735. She had eight children christened between 1735 - 1750, five boys and three girls ((a boy seems to have died at eighteen months). Eldest son William (b July 1737) married Mary Maxwell on 26 July 1761 - they had two boys and two girls who were christened between 1763 and 1769. On 9 January 1785, Mary Marshall Archer was christened; mother Ann, no father given. We assume the mother (Ann) to be William and Mary (Maxfield's) third child (c 29 March 1767). William and Mary's eldest son, William (6 May 1765) married Mary Todman on 4 January 1792 at Farnhurst (now called Fernhurst) and their nine children, including Anthony's father Richard, were all born there.

There seems to be a connection with Easebourne , just north of Midhurst, and not three miles from Lodsworth. On 16 November 1762, Anthony Archer married Mary Jay there. This fits conveniently with Anthony, third child of William and Mary Reves, who was christened on 16 May 1739. There is, however, no record of any issue.

On 23 October 1840 a John Archer married Emma Wingham. (Richard had a brother John who would have been 42 by then - not an impossible, but an unlikely, match). Subsequent entries tend to cause further confusion. Arthur Leicester Archer was christened on 27 August 1854, at Easebourne - father John Dowle Archer, mother Emma. This is fourteen years after John and Emma married and the only Arthur who may be "family". But how many John/Emma couples may be expected at about the same time in one small town? Two more John/Emma children follow: - Charles (christened 16 November 1856 at Easebourne) and Catherine (christened 11 December 1859 at Stedham - about 1½ miles west of Midhurst). If it was Richard's brother John, he would have been over sixty when Catherine was conceived.

Back to Farnhurst - William and Martha begat William (christened 1 August 1819) there, then Charlotte (christened 3 June 1821 at Fittleworth - 3 miles east of Petworth), then Harriett (christened 26 March 1826 at Pulborough - about 2 miles east of Fittleworth). Richard's eldest brother, William, was 23 at the time of the first christening, so we assume he was Martha's husband. A Charlotte Archer was working in service in the Lodsworth/Petworth area in 1841, but her age on the census return is given as 15.

Richard returned to Lodsworth and at the age of 36 married Jane Rapson there on 24 October 1840. Jane was 28, and a spinster. Her father Philip was a Sawyer. Later, when very old, he was described as a "Proprietor of Cottages". During the next sixteen years Jane gave birth to nine children, most of whom survived, married and gave her an army of grandchildren. She lived to be 87. Richard died of diptheria in December 1858 at only 54 years of age. Two of the children - Robert and Hannah Phillis died in January 1859 - possibly also from diptheria. >

In 1851, Richard and Jane are living with their first six children, Richard's father (William) aged 86 years, Jane's uncle, and one Edward Head, a lodger and journeyman Wheelwright (probably working with Richard).

In the 1861 census Jane is living with six of the children and her mother (Hannah Rapson - aged 86 years); she is described as a Wheelwright and Farmer, George (aged 18 years) the same, and Anthony (aged 16 years) as an agricultural labourer.

Rhoda Archer married George Sadler in 1860 and they had lots of children too - nine altogether - so that may be why Jane had her grand-daughter staying with her at the time of the 1871 census.

The last "Lodsworth" christening entry is a bit of a mystery. (The Lodsworth entries otherwise finish in 1843, although we know that Richard and Jane had six children there between 1844 (Anthony) and 1856 (Richard). The entry is dated 20 October 1850, and tells us that Elizabeth Archer married Charles Hopkins there. Who is Elizabeth Archer? The 1841 census tells us that an Elizabeth (aged 25) was living at Lurgashall with Richard's mother and father, then respectively aged 65 and 75, whose last known child was Robert, five years older than Elizabeth.

On 13 December 1868 Anthony married Hester Stone at St Johns Church, Lambeth. The address given by both was Millbrooke Road. George and Mary Archer were their witnesses. Their first born child, Anthony b 1869 died in 1872. William was born at Ashtead in 1871, and when George was born four years later, the address was shown as Chessington. Ashtead and Chessington are both close to Ewell, and when the 1881 census was taken they had six children, and they are living at Kingston Road, Ewell.

By 1871, Sophia Hill (daughter), Thomas Hill (son-in-law), Albert Hill (grandson - 3 months of age) and Rhoda Sadler (granddaughter, aged 7 years) are living with Jane. All the other children have left home.

The four brothers - George, Anthony, Edmund and Richard - all followed their father to become Wheelwrights. No doubt this made an economic necessity of the move from Lodsworth - four Wheelwrights in a place that size no doubt is three too many - but it was the railway that facilitated the trek to Ewell, and possible helped choose the location.

In 1859 a single line from Horsham to Petworth was opened (Petworth station was, in fact, almost two miles south of Petworth, and about five or six from Lodsworth); in 1866 the line was extended to Midhurst, and in July 1872 Selham station was opened. Selham is about three miles south of Lodsworth. The railway, from Horsham to London, ran through Ashtead, Epsom and Ewell.

When the census was taken in Ewell in 1871, George Archer was living at Beggars Hill with his wife Mary, his son George Richard, born at Albury, near Guildford three years previously. Jane was visiting the family on the day of the census.

Another brother, Richard Phillip, was with George in Ewell in 1871, ten years later he is married to Eliza Derx, they have three children, and they lived, like Anthony, in Kingston Road.

Edmund, it seems, was in a Wheelwright's shop in Ashtead in 1871, by 1881 he has married Susan Hollamby, they have three children (Edmond, William George. and Anthony Richard.) and lived in Meadow Walk, Ewell.

By 1881, all four Archer brothers are living in Ewell, Surrey, England. George and Mary have three sons and a daughter, Anthony and Hester have reached the half way stage with six children, Edmund and Susan have three sons, Richard and Eliza have three daughters. The school would have been thick with Archers.

Rhoda Sadler (Jane's eldest) had seven children at home, and Sophia Hill had given birth to son Albert, Jane had at least twenty four grandchildren in 1881, probably more (Rhoda's eldest daughter and eldest son, 17 if he survived, were not shown on the census return) and certainly six more to come before she died in 1899.

Four of Anthony and Hester Archer's children emigrated to New Zealand - George, Edie, Harry and Amy - all settled in the Auckland area, and a grandson and his family now live in Wellington.