He was born on November 15, 1835, in
Edinburgh,
Scotland, to Thomas Cleghorn and wife, Janet Nisbet, the second of two sons. In 1841 Thomas was Superintendent of the Government Domain (
Auckland Domain) in
Auckland, New Zealand. Janet Cleghorn died in Auckland in 1845. In 1851, at the age of 16, Archie Cleghorn travelled with his father to
Honolulu, where his father established a dry goods store. His father died within the year, but Archibald remained in Hawaii and continued running the store. His business prospered and he expanded to other islands. Cleghorn became a citizen of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1870. He married
Princess Miriam K. Likelike who was 19 years old, sister of
David Kalākaua, on September 22, 1870, at
Washington Place. In 1874 Kalākaua became King, and Cleghorn's daughter
Princess Victoria Kaiʻulani was the heir to the throne of the
House of Kalākaua. In 1877, Cleghorn and Princess Likelike arranged to donate the land surrounding the monument to
Captain James Cook on
Kealakekua Bay marking the site of his death, in trust to the government of the
United Kingdom. Cleghorn served in the House of Nobles from 1873 to 1888, and the Privy Council from 1873 to 1891. He acted as the
Royal Governor of Oʻahu in July 1887, and was appointed to succeed
Prince Consort John Owen Dominis upon his death in November 1891, until February 28, 1893. He was the president of the
Kapiʻolani Park Association since 1888, and first parks commissioner for the
City & County of Honolulu in 1900. He served as a trustee of
The Queen's Medical Center from 1905 to 1909.
The Hawaiian Overthrow Leading up to the 1893
overthrow, Cleghorn grew increasingly frustrated with Liliʻuokalani who he felt failed to see the seriousness of the political situation. He blamed Liliʻuokalani for not heeding his advice during the days leading up to the coup. In his diary, Cleghorn noted a British sympathizer had asked Liliʻuokalani to abdicate in favor of
Princess Victoria Kaʻiulani and he later wrote to his daughter that if the queen had abdicated on the night of 16th or the morning of the 17th, the monarchy would have been saved. On January 16, the day before the overthrow, he met privately with Thurston and requested his group respect Kaʻiulani's claim to throne and suggested installing her as queen with a board of regents as an alternative to overthrowing the monarchy. Thurston replied that the "matters have proceeded too far for your plan to be an adequate answer to this situation. We are going to abrogate the Monarchy entirely, and nothing can be done to stop us, so far as I can see!" Thurston noted that after their conversation Cleghorn looked as though he were about to cry and bowed his head in silence as he left. Historian
Ralph Simpson Kuykendall noted that "Governor Cleghorn's meager diary for the early part of 1893 suggests the picture of an anguished father frantically trying to save his beloved daughter from the unhappy fate which had befallen her through no fault of her own." Cleghorn took an oath of allegiance under protest to the
Provisional Government of Hawaii led by
Sanford B. Dole in order to retain his position as Collector General of Customs. He was ridiculed in the Hawaiian press for this move by Royalist
Clarence W. Ashford. Cleghorn also helped the new government in enforcing the oath of allegiance with existing governmental employees at the custom house and signed his letter to his superior with "Your obedient servant". He later resigned on April 15 and was replaced by annexationist
James Bicknell Castle. == ʻĀinahau and Stones of Kapaemahu ==