He had two sons, Francis Archer (1839–92), a shell collector and Samuel Archer, (1836–1902), who collected shells in Singapore.
Conchology | conchology |
In April 1891 he joined the Australian Museum staff as assistant in charge of land shells, and about five years later was appointed conchologist.
The type species is Hamites attenuatus from the early Albian, named by James Sowerby in his Mineral Conchology of Great Britain of 1814, although the genus itself was created by James Parkinson in his 1811 book Organic Remains of the Former World.
His wrote extensively in the journals of these societies on the conchology of Australia and Melanesia.