Sir Edward Mortimer Archibald was born on May 10, 1810, in Truro, Nova Scotia.

He was a British diplomat, a lawyer, and an officeholder active during the transition to responsible government in the colony of Newfoundland. His father Samuel George William Archibald was a lawyer and attorney general for Nova Scotia. Archibald studied law in his office and was admitted to the bar of Nova Scotia in 1831. The same year he was appointed chief clerk and registrar of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland, replacing his brother Charles Dickson Archibald in that position. By 1833 Archibald was an acting assistant judge of the Newfoundland Supreme Court. He also took on the additional job of the chief clerk of the Newfoundland General Assembly. In 1857, Archibald served as British consul to New York, a position he held for twenty-six years until his retirement in 1883. From 1871 he also undertook the additional responsibility of acting as British consul-general for New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

In 1834, he married Catherine Elizabeth Richardson. One of their daughters, Edith Jessie Archibald was a Canadian suffragist and writer. He died on February 8, 1884, in Steyning, Sussex, England.