Thomas Archer

For the pastoralist with the same name, see Thomas Archer (pastoralist).
Thomas Archer
Born c.1668
unknown
Died 22 May 1743(1743-05-22)
his house Whitehall
Nationality English
Work
Buildings St. Paul's, Deptford
St John's, Smith Square
St. Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham
North Front & Cascade Chatsworth House
Heythrop Park
Garden pavilion Wrest Park

Thomas Archer (1668–1743) was an English Baroque architect, whose work is somewhat overshadowed by that of his contemporaries Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. Archer spent his youth at Umberslade Hall in Tanworth-in-Arden in Warwickshire, the youngest son of Thomas Archer, a country gentleman, Parliamentary Colonel, and Member of Parliament, and Ann Leigh, daughter of the London haberdasher, Richard Leigh.[1] The exact date of Archer's birth is unknown, but can be inferred from the two documentary sources that mention his age. One is an entry in the Oxford University register recording his matriculation at Trinity College on 12 June 1686, aged 17; the other, his epitaph, survives in the parish church of Hale, Hampshire. If these records are accurate, he must have been born between 12 June 1668 and 22 May 1669. Thomas is the only one of the Archer children not to have his birth recorded in the Tamworth-in-Arden parish register, which suggests he may have been born elsewhere.[2] He attended Trinity College, Oxford, from which he matriculated on 12 June 1686.[3] After leaving university he went on a Grand Tour, spending four years abroad and was influenced by the work of Bernini and Borromini.

Thomas Archer's churches include St John's, Smith Square, Westminster, badly damaged in World War II, St. Paul's, Deptford and St Philip, Birmingham, now Birmingham Cathedral. Archer's secular works included Roehampton House in Surrey, Welford Park in Berkshire, and the Cascade House and the west front and broadly bowed pilastered north front at Chatsworth House. Between 1709–1711 Archer designed a Baroque Garden pavilion for Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Kent at Wrest Park, Silsoe, Bedfordshire. After 1712 Archer designed Hurstbourne Priors in Hampshire for John Wallop (later Earl of Portsmouth). He remodelled St Mary's Church at Hale, Hampshire which also contains Archer Memorial designed by himself and carved by Sir Henry Cheere.[4]

He was a founding governor of the Foundling Hospital in London in 1739, but was not involved in the construction of the resulting building, completed circa 1750. The architect for that project was a Mr. Theodore Jacobsen.

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Documented works

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References

  1. ^ The Little London Directory of 1677: the oldest printed list of the merchants and bankers of London. Edited by John Camden Hotton, 1863. A reprint of A Collection of the Names of Merchants living in and about the City of London, 11 October 1677, under license from Roger L'Estrange. Richard Leigh and his wife Mary had six children, of which Ann was the eldest. The family lived in the parish of St. Helen's Bishopgate. Ann married Thomas Archer, the architect's father in 1649 in the parish of St. Peter-le-Poor.
  2. ^ Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1500–1714 (Oxford: Jame s Parker & Co., 189 1). Marcus Whiffen, Thomas Archer, vol. 3 (London: Art and Technics, 1950). Marcus Whiffen, Thomas Archer, architect of the English baroque, [New ed.] ed. (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, 1973).
  3. ^ page 10, Thomas Archer Architect of the English Baroque, Marcus Whiffen, 1973, Art and Technics
  4. ^ "The Puzzle of St Mary's Church – Hale". Judith Leigh © Cathedral Communications Limited 2005. http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/stmaryschurch/stmarys.htm. 

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Court offices
Preceded by
William Rowley		 Groom Porter
1705–1743		 Succeeded by
Charles FitzRoy