Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Archer, Thomas (d.1743)
ARCHER, THOMAS (d. 1743), architect, was the son of Thomas Archer, M.P. for Warwick in the time of Charles II. He was a pupil of Sir John Vanbrugh, and had considerable practice in the first half of the eighteenth century. He held the office of ‘groom porter’ under Queen Anne, George I, and George II, and he is so styled in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ where his death is recorded (23 May 1743). About 1705 he built Heythorpe Hall, in Oxfordshire, said to have been his first work; St. Philip's Church, Birmingham, begun in 1711 and finished in 1719; St. John's Church, Westminster, consecrated in 1728; Cliefden House, which was destroyed by fire; and many other buildings, of which there is sufficient record in the ‘Dictionary of the Architectural Publication Society.’ The date of his birth is not known; but at his death, in 1743, he must have reached an advanced age. He is said to have left above 100,000l. to his youngest nephew, H. Archer, Esq., member for Warwick.
[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists; Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting; Dictionary of Architectural Publication Society; Gent. Mag. xiii. 275.]