{{short description|American politician}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Archer Mathews | honorific_suffix = | image = | alt = | state_delegate = Virginia | district = Greenbrier | term_start = 1780 | term_end = 1782 | predecessor = John Stuart | successor = James Reid | speaker = | term_start2 = | term_end2 = | predecessor2 = | successor2 = | birth_date = 1744 | birth_place = Augusta County, Virginia, British America | death_date = c.1790 | death_place = Lewisburg, Virginia, U.S. | spouse = Letitia McLanahan | party = | relations = Mathews family | children = | alma_mater = | occupation = Saddler <br> Legislator | profession = | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | footnotes = | rank = | branch = Virginia militia | service_years = | unit = | battles = American Revolutionary War | awards = }}
'''Archer Mathews''' (1744 – {{circa}} 1796) was a United States pioneer, legislator, and city founder in the colony (and later U.S. state) of Virginia. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Greenbrier County from 1780 to 1782.<ref name =Leonard>Leonard, Cynthia Miller 1978. The General Assembly of Virginia, July 30, 1619-January 11, 1978: a bicentennial register of members. Virginia State Library</ref><ref name=Rice>Rice, Otis K. 1986. A History of Greenbrier County. Greenbrier Historical Society, p. 116</ref>
== Life == {{See also|Mathews family}} Archer Mathews was born in 1744 in Augusta County, Virginia, to Ann (Archer) and John Mathews. His parents were among the first European settlers of Augusta County, likely having immigrated to America during the Scotch-Irish immigration of 1710–1775.<ref>Waddell, p. 1</ref> His father was a notable member of the early Augusta County community, serving as a militia captain and public officer.<ref>Peyton, p. 97</ref><ref>Waddell, p. 137</ref> Archer Mathews was the youngest of eleven siblings, and was a minor when his father died in 1757.<ref name="Cole, p. 70">Cole, p. 70</ref> He sold the land bequeathed him to a brother in 1768,<ref>Chalkley, p. 478</ref> and moved to the new frontier of Greenbrier County,<ref name="Cole, p. 70"/> where his brothers Sampson and George Mathews had established the area's first European trade network.<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Handley|first1=Harry |date=1963 |title=The Mathews Trading Post |url= http://www.gillilandtrails.org/pages/MathewsTradingPost.asp|journal=The Journal of the Greenbrier Historical Society |volume= 1|issue=1 |access-date=April 17, 2020}}</ref> He married Letitia McLanahan and had seven children.<ref name="Cole, p. 70"/>
In Greenbrier County, Mathews was saddler,<ref name=Rice /> and served as one of county's first magistrates, overseeing road construction, surveying the land, and holding court.<ref name="Dayton, p. 215">Dayton, p. 215</ref> On the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, Mathews served as commissary for Fort Randolph, an American outpost erected in 1776 for defense against Indian raiding. Mathews purchased a large drove of cattle and hogs for the fort in November 1776 and delivered it through territory under regular attack from Indians.<ref>Rice, p. 61</ref><ref>Thwaites, p. 209</ref> Mathews was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates from Greenbrier County for the sessions of 1780–81 and 1781–82.<ref>Kromkowski, http://vavh.electionstats.com/php/bio.php?pid=4797 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181217210757/http://vavh.electionstats.com/php/bio.php?pid=4797 |date=2018-12-17 }}</ref> During the latter session he was appointed one of eight original trustees of the city of Lewisburg, Virginia (now West Virginia) on its formation, and as such he worked to develop the city and partition its land into plots to be sold.<ref>{{cite book| last=Grose | first=S. E. | year=1997 | title= Greenbrier County WV Heritage | publisher= The Greenbrier Heritage Book Committee | location = Greenbrier County, West Virginia | oclc = 2575649 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=GPsJ1b3sJ6MC |page = 2|ref=Grose }}</ref> One such plot was bought by a nephew, Joseph Mathews, who was the grandfather of 5th West Virginia governor Henry Mason Mathews.<ref>Combs, p. 5-44</ref>
Archer Mathews died c. 1790,<ref name="Dayton, p. 215"/> and was buried at the Old Stone Church in Lewisburg, West Virginia.
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== * {{cite book| last=Chalkley | first=Lyman| year=1912 | title=Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia | publisher= The Commonwealth printing co | location = Rosslyn, Virginia | oclc = 2575649 | url= https://archive.org/details/chroniclesscotc00lockgoog/page/n6 |ref=Chalkley }} * {{cite book| last=Cole | first=J.R. | year=1917 | title=History of Greenbrier County | publisher= C. R. Caldwell | location = Lewisburg, West Virginia | oclc = 874926102| url=https://archive.org/details/historyofgreenbr00cole/page/66 | access-date=April 17, 2020|ref=Cole }} * {{cite book| last= Combs| first=James Thurl| year=1987| title=Greenbrier, C.S.A. Wartime Letters of Mason Mathews to his son Captain Joseph William Mathews, C.S.A., p. 5–44 | publisher= The Journal of the Greenbrier Historical Society | location = Parsons, West Virginia | oclc = 13983198 |ref=Combs}} * {{cite book| last=Dayton | first=Ruth| year=1942 | title=Greenbrier Pioneers and Their Homes | publisher= West Virginia Publishing Company | location = Charleston, West Virginia | oclc = 416281810 |ref=Dayton }} * {{cite web| last=Kromkowski | first=C. | year=2005 | title=Virginia Elections and State Elected Officials Database Project, 1776 – 2005 | publisher= University of Virginia Library | location = Charlottesville, Virginia | url=http://vavh.electionstats.com/|ref=Kromkowski}} * {{cite book| last=Peyton | first=John L. | year=1882 | title=History of Augusta County, Virginia| publisher= Samuel M. Yost & son | location = Unknown | oclc = 923774044 | url= https://archive.org/details/historyaugustac00peytgoog|ref=Peyton }} * {{cite book| last= Rice| first=Otis K.| author-link =Otis K. Rice | year=1986| title=A History of Greenbrier County | publisher= Greenbrier Historical Society | location = Lewisburg, West Virginia | isbn= 0961750502 | oclc = 15539717 |ref=Rice}} * {{cite book| last= Thwaites | first=Reuben | year=1908 | title=The Revolution on the Upper Ohio, 1775-1777 | publisher= Wisconsin Historical Society | location = Madison, Wisconsin | oclc=62859772 | url=https://archive.org/details/revolutiononuppe00thwa_0 | access-date=July 25, 2020|ref=Thwaites}} * {{cite book| last=Waddell | first=Joseph A. | year=1902 | title=Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871 | publisher= C. R. Caldwell | location = Staunton, Virginia | oclc = 3880311| url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_rZbEC1kEdpcC |ref=Waddell}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathews, Archer}} Category:1744 births Category:1796 deaths Category:18th-century members of the Virginia General Assembly Category:Founders of populated places in Virginia Category:American surveyors Archer Category:Members of the Virginia House of Delegates Category:People from Augusta County, Virginia Category:People from colonial Virginia Category:People from Greenbrier County, West Virginia Category:People from pre-statehood West Virginia Category:Politicians from Lewisburg, West Virginia Category:Trustees of populated places in Virginia Category:Virginia militiamen in the American Revolution Category:West Virginia pioneers