Born to an Irish Catholic family in Kildare, now known as Geelong West, Victoria, he was baptised John Feltham Archibald, but changed his forenames in later life "when he became an enthusiast in everything French".

He was also a target of humour because of his pretentious name change (pronounced "Jules Franswa") and false pretensions to having a part-Scottish father and a French Jewish mother.

[1] After working as an accountant, journalist (with the Melbourne Daily Telegraph),[2] public servant and miner in Victoria and Queensland, Archibald arrived in Sydney in 1878, where he formed a partnership with John Haynes and William Macleod, and on 31 January 1880 they launched The Bulletin as a weekly paper of political, business and literary news.

Under Archibald's sole control, and with A. G. Stephens as his literary editor, The Bulletin became Australia's leading outlet for poets, cartoonists, and authors of fiction and humour.

It was his decision to open The Bulletin's pages to contributions from readers, and his brand of radical, republican, xenophobic politics that the magazine reflected for the 16 years he controlled its content.