Charles Dickson Archibald was born on October 31, 1802, in Truro, Nova Scotia.

He was a lawyer, businessman, and political figure in Nova Scotia. He graduated from Pictou Academy in 1822 and continued to study law in his father's office (Samuel George William Archibald) in Truro. In 1826, he was elected to the Nova Scotia Assembly representing Truro Township. In 1830, he became a chief clerk and registrar for the Supreme Court of Newfoundland, but he resigned this post in 1831. In 1832, he married Bridget Walker, heiress to the Rusland estate in Lancashire, England, and spent most of the remainder of his life in England. In 1840, Archibald was the first Nova Scotian to be accorded the honour of becoming a fellow of the Royal Society of London. He retained close ties with Nova Scotia and frequently visited the province, helping to raise funds to develop an iron mine near Londonderry, Nova Scotia. In 1851, he attended a conference in Toronto regarding a railway linking the Maritimes to Upper and Lower Canada. He filed numerous patents while in England but was made bankrupt shortly before his death in London in 1868.