Robert Archer
| Robert Archer | |
|---|---|
| Person | Robert Archer |
| Title | |
| First name | Robert |
| Middle name(s) | |
| Last name | Archer |
| Suffix | |
| Spouse of | |
| Widow of | |
| Occupation | Grocer |
| Secondary shorebased occupation | |
| Mariner occupation | |
| Associated with ship(s) | |
| Training | Not apprentice |
| Is apprentice of | |
| Was apprentice of | |
| Had apprentice(s) | |
| Citizen | Unknown |
| Literacy | Signature |
| Has opening text | |
| Has signoff text | |
| Signoff image | {{{Transcription image}}} |
| Language skills | English language |
| Has interpreter | |
| Birth street | |
| Birth parish | |
| Birth town | |
| Birth county | |
| Birth province | |
| Birth country | |
| Res street | |
| Res parish | Saint Olave Old Jewry |
| Res town | London |
| Res county | |
| Res province | |
| Res country | England |
| Birth year | 1613 |
| Marriage year | |
| Death year | |
| Probate date | |
| First deposition age | |
| Primary sources | |
| Act book start page(s) | |
| Personal answer start page(s) | |
| Allegation start page(s) | |
| Interrogatories page(s) | |
| Deposition start page(s) | HCA 13/72 f.354v Annotate |
| Chancery start page(s) | |
| Letter start page(s) | |
| Miscellaneous start page(s) | |
| Act book date(s) | |
| Personal answer date(s) | |
| Allegation date(s) | |
| Interrogatories date(s) | |
| Deposition date(s) | Jun 23 1658 |
| How complete is this biography? | |
| Has infobox completed | Yes |
| Has synthesis completed | No |
| Has HCA evidence completed | Yes |
| Has source comment completed | No |
| Ship classification | |
| Type of ship | |
| Silver Ship litigation in 1650s | |
| Role in Silver Ship litigation | |
Biographical synthesis
Evidence from High Court of Admiralty
Robert Archer, a forty-five year old Grocer of Saint Olave Old Jury, London, deposed in the High Court of Admiralty in June 1658. He was examined upon a libel in the case of "Benjamin Ballenger against Kate and others".
His deposition concerned the weight of hogsheads of sugar brought from Barbados at the end of the year 1656. He contrasted net and gross weights, stating that a hogshead of sugar without the hogshead at that time and from that place weighed about four and a quarter hundred weight, and that the sugar and the hogshead together weighed about five hundred tons. He stated that Muscavado sugar from Barbados "unpurged and before excise payd" could be sold in London in April and May 1657 for thirty-seven shillings per hundred weight.[1]
His expertise was the result of "being a Grocer by trade" and "now trading cheifly in sugars in London", which he had done for the last ten years. He referred to his account books to confirm the prices and weights of the sugars in his testimony.
Robert Latham (1983) has an entry for the Archer family of Bourn near Cambridge in the companion volume to the complete edition of Samuel Pepys' diaries. He identifies "The fair Betty" Archer from this family, who was admired by Pepys in his undergraduate days. He states that her sister Mary ("said to be worth £1000") married Clement Sankey, ex-Fellow of Magdalene, in 1669. He further states that their uncle lived in the Old Jewry and "was possibly Robert Archer, citizen and grocer, of that street, who occurs in a will of 1659."[2]
