http://genforum.genealogy.com/grubb/messages/165.html David Grubb post, 07 May 1999
Ever since 1893, there has been a debate within the Delaware Grubb family concerning its origins. New evidence has been discovered that finally establishes that John Grubb, our immigrant ancestor was christened in Stoke Climsland, Cornwall on August 16, 1652, the son of Henry Grubb Jr and his wife, Wilmot.
For the last nine months, Wilmer Grubb, Harold Mullins and myself have been working to update Gilbert Cope’s 1893 history of the family. Numerous other people are contributing material for the project. Below are the results of the portion of this project dealing with the family’s origins. Part one discusses the Grubb families in England. Part two discusses John Grubb's ancestors including the new evidence. Part three is a new biography of John Grubb.
PART ONE
THE GRUBB FAMILIES OF ENGLAND:
To members of the Delaware Grubb family, Judge Ignatius Cooper Grubb (1841 ‐ 1927) of the Delaware Court of Appeals is remembered for his disproved theory that the Delaware family was descended from nobility. We now know that John Grubb, our immigrant ancestor was not a member of the prominent Wiltshire Grubbe family, and that Frances, his wife was not the daughter of Sir Henry Vane, "the younger." However, to genealogists of various Grubb families throughout the world, Ignatius Grubb is recognized as the first modern family historian who determined that the Grubb families of England are in fact transplants from Denmark and Germany.
The surname Grubb, Grubbe and its variations do not appear in the first census of England, taken in the late eleventh century. It appears that the name was brought to England by twelfth and thirteenth century Danish immigrants and later by fifteenth century Protestant Hussite refugees from northern Germany. The Grubb/Grubbe surname is not common in England, but by the seventeenth century there were Grubb families throughout the United Kingdom. Just as in America, many of these families were probably not related.
Judge Ignatius Grubb traveled throughout Scandinavia in the summer of 1893 and discovered the roots of the Danish Grubbe family that dates to at least 988. This is a noble family that has produced a long line of royal councilors, Bishops, Diplomats and Admirals of note. In 1127, Gonde Grubbe owned an estate called Veringe in Denmark. In 1619, King Christian IV of Denmark gave Ericus Grubbe command of six warships that sailed to India and Ceylon. However, one should not assume that the Danish immigrants who came to England were related to this noble Danish family. Records of more common people from this period have not survived.
The earliest reported German Grubb family was that of Henricvs Von Grubbe, who about 1040 was Lord of the Principality of Brittore in the Hartz Mountains of Brunswick in North Germany. This area is known for its gold and silver mines. In German, the name Grube or Grubbe means a miner or a possessor of mines. While the connection between the German and Danish Grubbe families has not been established, the fact that immigrants with the Grubb/Grubbe last name came to America from a number of countries could indicate that the family (or families) spread in many directions from its roots.
The immigration of Danish Grubbes to England started a century after the Norman Conquest. In 1176, a Richard Grubb was reported in Buckinghamshire, northwest of London. In 1273, a John Grubbe was reported in Norfolk County on the eastern coast of England. Also in 1273, Alan Grubbe was reported in Cambridge County, just west of Norfolk. Three years later, a Robert Grube inherited lands in Cumberland County. Another John Grubbe came from Denmark to England in 1285. Unfortunately, parish records in England only date to 1540 and it is not possible to trace the ancestry of common people before then. For example, Thomas Grubb who came from Norfolk County to Boston in 1635 was probably a descendant of Danish immigrants, but the exact line can’t be traced. Thomas had no male grandchildren and is not the ancestor of any modern Grubbs in America. However, there are at least some Grubb families in England that are probably the descendants of these early Danish settlers.
The London Grubb Family: The oldest Grubb family that can be traced down to the present is descended from Valte (i.e. Walter) Grubbe who migrated from Denmark to London in the mid thirteenth century and established a shipping fleet on the Thames. A good historical record survives because Walter and his descendants were members of London’s powerful fishmonger’s guild. He also left a place name in the city. Grub Street ran through his former property along the river about a tenth of a mile south of Westminster Abbey and is now the unnamed service alley for the ICI headquarters at the intersection of Mill Bank and Horse Ferry streets. A second Grub Street was west of the Tower of London and became a writer’s colony during the Elizabethan period. Today, the phrase Grub Street is used to describe a second‐rate author. This second Grub Street was renamed about 1830 and was not rebuilt after World War II.
As early as 1328, members of Walter’s family moved to North Mimms in Hertfordshire about 20 miles north of the city where a Walter Grubbe endowed the church. One of the members of this branch was Henry Grubbe, who about 1506 married Lady Joan Parr Radcliffe ‐ daughter and heir of the Sir Richard Radcliffe who was killed in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field defending King Richard III. In 1562, Richard Grubb became Mayor of St Albans and during the seventeenth century a number of family members served in various local offices including both the Cromwell and restoration periods.
In 1662, John Grubb Jr (1625 – 1700), probably the 2nd great grandson of Sir Henry Grubbe, purchased the estate and mansion house at Horsenden, Buckinghamshire, just over the boarder from Hertfordshire. This estate of 1240 acres remained in the family until 1841 when it was sold for 63,000 pounds to the Duke of Buckingham. Members of this branch include a long line of London area solicitors and Clerks of the fishmonger’s company. In 1819, John Grubb (1786 – 1846) was High Sheriff of Buckingshire. Later, John Eustace Grubb Esq. (1815 – 1899) founded the Southwold, Suffolk branch of the family and Major Edmund Arthur Grubb (1825 – 1863) served in India where he was wounded at the Battle of Ferozeshuhur. Today, descendants of the London Grubb family can be found in Australia and Canada.
Because of the prominence of the London Grubb family, it has been common for both professional and amateur genealogists to trace the ancestry of other Grubb families to Sir Henry Grubbe and his wife Joan Radcliffe. Many of these claims are pure nonsense. However, it is possible that at least several Grubb families are descendants or related to this couple.
The Wiltshire Hunt‐Grubbe Family: It is commonly reported that at the end of the fifteenth century, Robert Grubbe, Sir Henry’s brother, settled in Devizes, Wiltshire about 25 miles east of Bristol and about 12 miles north of Stonehenge. Wiltshire is one of the southern counties and even today is rural and conservative. However, it should be noted that members of the Wiltshire family are not sure about the connection to the London family, and many believe that the Wiltshire family is actually descended from German Hussites.
What is known is that in 1568, another Sir Henry Grubbe was Mayor of Devizes and three years later represented Wiltshire in Parliament. Henry’s son, Thomas Grubbe, acquired the family’s Eastwell estate in Potterne, a small village two miles south of Devizes. Over four hundred years later, the family is still in possession of this estate. The Wiltshire Grubbe family had considerable wealth, and in 1642 John Grubbe (1588 – 1649) received a begging letter from King Charles asking for a loan of 200 pounds, about three‐ quarters of a million dollars. Never numerous, the last male heir, Walter Grubbe, died in 1715 and the estate passed to William Hunt, the son of Mary Grubbe and Thomas Hunt. The Hunt family then became known as the Hunt‐Grubbes. Some notable members of this family are:
Rev. Thomas Grubbe (1594 – 1652) was educated at Oxford and served for 33 years as the Rector at Cranford, Bedfordshire.
Walter Grubbe (unk – 1715) was educated at Oxford and represented Wiltshire in Parliament.
Major John Heanage Hunt‐Grubbe commanded the 76th Regiment at Quebec.
Major Thomas Hunt‐Grubbe (1793 – unk) was wounded at the Battle of New Orleans in 1715.
Admiral Brudenell Hunt‐Grubbe R.N. (1883 – unk) served in both world wars and was High Sheriff for Wiltshire in 1945‐6.
The Northamptonshire and Irish Grubb Family(s): Located about 50 miles northwest of London, Northamptonshire was home to a large community of weavers, hatters and linen merchants. The Northamptonshire Grubb family may actually be two unrelated families. About 1440, a group of Hussites from Germany settled on the Leicestershire‐Northamptonshire border and probably included members of the Von Grubbe family who shortened their name to Grubbe and later to Grubb. However, descendants of the Grubb family from nearby Ravensthorp believe that they can trace their ancestry back to the youngest brother of Sir Henry Grubbe and Lady Loan Radcliffe.
The Irish branch of the family descended from John Grubb (1620 – 1696) who was born Ravensthorp, Northamptonshire, and became a soldier in Cromwell’s army. As a reward for his service he was given 1,000 acres and Annaghs Castle in County Kilkenny. In August 1656, John, his wife Mary Towers, and their five children sailed from Bristol on a four‐day voyage to Waterford. About 1676, John became a Quaker. Four years later, Mary died and John remarried. A son named John Jr. was born the next year.
John Grubb Jr (1682 – 1731) became a carpenter and married Anne Willan, daughter of prominent Quakers in County Wexford. They had ten children, though four died young. His trade was not successful and in 1719 they moved to a farm in County Tipperary. John continued to fall behind in his debts and in 1727 a Waterford Quaker offered him employment supervising the construction of a ship in Burlington, New Jersey. John left for America without his family hoping to return to Ireland when his engagement was completed. However, the ship proved to be larger and more expensive than the owner required and John was dismissed without pay. Unable to fulfil other business engagements, he was thrown into prison in 1730 and sailed back to Ireland upon his release. He died shortly after his arrival home.
The descendants of John Grubb Jr. became a very large family in Ireland. As Quakers, Grubb family was able to establish good relations with the Catholic majority. Three of John’s sons settled in Clonmel, County Tipperary. Joseph Grubb (1709 – 1782) became a corn merchant who built Grubb Mills in Clonmel and Waterford that dominated the business in that part of Ireland. John Grubb III (1712 – 1779) became a successful clothier and Benjamin Grubb (1727 – 1802) became a grocer and provision merchant. For generations, the family was especially prosperous because of the continuing success of Grubb Mills. Over the years, numerous Irish Grubbs became notable.
Robert Grubb (1743 – 1797) was a Quaker minister who along with his wife, Sarah Tuke, is remembered for their missionary work in Europe. A book of Sarah’s letters is still available in various historical libraries in the United States. Samuel Grubb (1750 – 1815) was known as the Squire of Clogheen. He inherited Grubb Mills and purchased the manor in Tipperary that became the home of the family for the next 150 years.
Lt. Col. Alexander Grubb (1842 – 1925) was an officer in the Royal Artillery from 1861 to 1884 and served in Australia, Ceylon, Malta and Gibraltar.
Sir Howard Grubb (1844 – 1931) graduated from Trinity College and became a leading astronomical instrument maker.
Rev. George Carleton Grubb (1856 – 1940) became a worldwide missionary for the Church of England.
Commander Walter Bousefield Watkins Grubb R.N. (1879 – 1914) was lost in action on 22 September, 1914 in the North Sea while commanding the cruiser H.M.S. Cressy that was patrolling with her two sisters when sunk by U 9. After the first cruiser was hit, the other two stopped to pick up survivors and were also sunk.
Dr. Isabel Grubb (1881 – unk) became a well‐known Quaker historian and author.
Captain Reginald Watkins Grubb R.N. (1883 – unk) commanded the new M class destroyer H.M.S. Marvel in the Battle of Jutland during WWI.
Sir Kenneth George Grubb was noted missionary in South America who served as Controller of Overseas Publicity in the Ministry of Information from 1941 to 1946.
Rev. Geoffrey Bevan Watkins Grubb (1908 – 1975) was educated at Oxford and ordained by the Church of England in 1933. He became the Irish Grubb family historian and founded the Grubb Family Association in the U.K.
Lt. Col. Alexander James Watkins Grubb (1909 – unk) served as an army officer in India and Ceylon and was appointed High Sheriff for Cheshire in 1972.
Richard De Cruce Grubb (1915 – 1934) was test pilot in the R.A.F. who was lost in a flying accident over the Irish Sea.
Despite the sad experience of John Grubb Jr in Burlington, the story of the Irish Grubb family in America has proven to be much happier. William Grubb of Annaghs Castle, a grandson of John Grubb Senior through his first son, Samuel, came to Pennsylvania in 1708. At least four descendants of John Grubb Jr also came to America including: Thomas Grubb (1873 – unk), who immigrated about 1810; Robert Grubb (1790 – 1882), who settled in British Columbia about 1815; Richard Grubb (1835 – 1903), who came to the United States about 1860; and Frederick Grubb (1844 – 1919), who settled in California.
The Cornish Grubb Family: Along with Wales, Scotland and Ireland, Cornwall on the southwest tip of England was one of the last homelands of the Celts. The population in Cornwall spoke a form of Gaelic until the eighteenth century and was especially active in mining as well as farming and maritime trades. Cornish Grubb family lore is that the family came from Germany during the rein of Queen Elizabeth to advise Cornish miners. It is more likely that the family arrived a century earlier in 1430 along with German Hussite weavers and hatters escaping persecution. There is also a published claim that at least some Cornish Grubbs are descendants of Sir Henry Grubbe and Lady Joan Radcliffe through their youngest son, Thomas Grubbe (1533 – unk). The story is that Thomas went to sea, married Agnes Jeffrey in 1562 at Plymouth, and settled in the Cornish village of Stoke Climsland. However, this has been disproved because Grubbs have been identified in that parish at an earlier date.
The Scottish Grubb Families: The origins of the Scottish Grubb families are unknown, but there is some evidence that they are indigenous to Scotland. We know that by 1180 there was a Barony of Grubbet north of the English border and that the family name at that time was Grubbehewed. In 1309, a John Grubb was recorded in Scotland; a George Grub further north in 1430; and, an Eufume Grubb in 1584. Alexander Grube was listed as an armourer in 1592. Other early family members were listed as millers, maltmen, weavers, tailors, mariners, shipwrights, masons and farmers. Until about 1750, the family occupied a 40‐mile strip along Scotland’s eastern coast about half way between Edinburgh and Aberdeen as well as Inverurie, 15 miles inland from Aberdeen. From these beginnings, the family spread worldwide so that today few Grubbs remain in Scotland.
Fifeshire Grubb Family: Archibald Grubb (Abt 1767 ‐ unk) went to Dublin, Ireland where he built the harbor blockhouse and fort. Later, he moved to Fermoy near Cork where he built barracks. His descendants left Ireland for South Africa and Tasmania, Australia and today can also be found in England and Canada.
Inverurie Grubb Family: George Grubb (1812 – 1892) became Town Clerk of Aberdeen and wrote the four volume Ecclesiastical History of Scotland in 1861. Members of this family remain in Inverurie and Aberdeen.
Edinburgh Grubb Family: This family can be traced to Edinburgh by 1765 and members still remain in Scotland as well as England, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. William Charles Grubb (1790 – 1878) and his brother John Grubb (1783 – 1850) immigrated to Canada in 1832 and William’s son came to Poughkeepsie, New York in 1837. Wilfred Barbrook‐Grubb (1865 – 1930) was known as the Livingstone of South America for his work as a missionary and explorer in Paraguay.
Tayport Grubb Family: John Grubb (1813 – unk) was a ship’s carpenter who reached Lyttleton, New Zealand by 1847 and his son, James Brown Grubb was elected Mayor of Lyttleton in 1902. James Brown Grubb Jr (1892 – unk) settled in Oakland, California and built a large real estate business. In 1962, he established the Grubb Scholarship Foundation to assist African students pursue graduate studies.
Dundee Grubb Family: In 1849, William R. Grubb (1835 – unk) emigrated to Boonton, New Jersey and founded a nail manufacturing firm. His sons include William R. Grubb Jr (1857 – unk) who was Town Clerk in Bangor, Maine; George W. Grubb (1859 – unk) who was a store manager; Charles R. Grubb (1861 – unk) who was editor of the Suffolk County, New Jersey News; and, Frank C. Grubb (1863 – unk) who was the Municipal Auditor of Newark, New Jersey.
PART TWO
ANCESTORS OF JOHN GRUBB, THE DELAWARE SETTLER:
Over the years there has been considerable research into the ancestors of John Grubb ‐ the Delaware settler. The first family historian was Alex Grubb of the Cornish Grubb family, who in 1688 researched the parish records of Stoke Climsland, Cornwall on the southwest tip of England. In October 1893, Gilbert Cope of the Pennsylvania Genealogical Society published the first history of the Delaware Grubb family contending that the settler came from Stoke Climsland. Just two months later, Judge Ignatius Cooper Grubb (1841 ‐ 1927) offered a completely different theory that the settler was actually a member of the Wiltshire Grubbe family, starting an intense debate within the family that has lasted for over a century. It wasn’t until 1999 that the evidence was found to conclusively settle the issue. The roots of the Delaware Grubb family are indeed in Stoke Climsland.
Gilbert Cope made the first effort to identify the English parents of John Grubb. Cope wrote in October 1893 that John’s mother was probably Wilmot Grubb, a Quaker from Stoke Climsland. He also wrote that the Record of the Sufferings of Quakers (Besse I, 118) lists the 1663 imprisonment in Tremation Castle of a Henry Grubb from Stoke Climsland, and that this Henry was possibly Wilmot’s husband. Cope pointed out that Wilmot’s son Henry Grubb was on the Kent with John Grubb and that Charity Beeson, one of John’s daughters, named her daughter Wellmet. Cope concluded from this circumstantial evidence that Henry and John were probably brothers. However, many family members questioned this conclusion because Henry and his parents were Quakers, while John was episcopal, at least late in life.
While returning from his vacation in Scandinavia during the summer of 1893, Delaware Judge Ignatius Grubb was invited to visit Wiltshire by Admiral Sir Walter Hunt‐Grubbe. There, Ignatius learned that during the civil wars, a John Grubb (1610 – 1667) of the Wiltshire family had gone into hiding in Cornwall after Cromwell successfully attacked Devizes Castle in 1645. Admiral Sir Hunt‐Grubbe showed Ignatius Grubb numerous old records including the begging letter received by the family during the civil wars. From these records, Ignatius also learned that while in Cornwall, John married Helen Vivian of an old Cornish family, and they had a son who they named John. John and his wife, Helen returned to Potterne around the time of the restoration where he died in 1667. For Judge Ignatius Grubb, these facts had to be more than mere coincidence, and upon his return to Wilmington in December 1893, he wrote that the Delaware Grubb family was descended from the prominent Grubbe family of Wiltshire and that the settler’s parents were John Grubb and Helen Vivian.
The obvious problem with Ignatius Grubb’s theory is that John Grubb, the settler in Delaware, was a tanner who didn’t have enough money to buy land when he arrived in America even though land was very inexpensive at the time. Judge Grubb tried to explain away this discrepancy by stating that the family was of greatly reduced circumstances due to the civil wars. However, this certainly wasn’t the case after the restoration in 1660, seventeen years before John came to America. By that time, the Wiltshire family was quite wealthy and a member of the family, Walter Grubbe was in Parliament.
While a number of family members were bothered by this discrepancy, Ignatius Grubb’s work became the standard genealogy of the Delaware Grubb family. Over the next the century, numerous genealogies, mostly vanity biographies were published with Judge Grubb’s basic conclusion, but often with embellished details. For example, sometime after 1893, Judge Grubb further claimed that Henry Grubbe, the Mayor of Devizes, was the younger son of the Sir Henry Grubbe who married Lady Joan Parr Radcliffe. In fact, the Wiltshire Grubbe family itself has rejected this contention. Other writers claimed that the settler was baptized in Truro, Cornwall on April 20, 1652. However, there is no record of this in the registers of Truro or any of the area parishes. Another frequently cited detail is that the Rev. Thomas Grubb, supposedly the settler’s grandfather, was the first to drop the e from the surname Grubbe. In fact, Devizes and Potterne parish records indicate that the e was often dropped earlier in Wiltshire, but that the Rev. Thomas Grubbe retained the e. It also became popular to claim that the settler’s father was the recipient of the begging letter. In fact Ignatius Grubb’s manuscript and Wiltshire family records clearly indicate that a brother of Rev. Thomas Grubbe received the begging letter.
In 1937, Davis Hanson Grubb (1888 – 1977), a successful San Francisco businessman, lost his 18‐year‐old son Peter in a mountain climbing accident in the Italian Alps. In memory of his son, Davis arranged for the National Parks Service to name a mountain in the California Sierras "Grubb Peak" and two years later published a complete version of Judge Ignatius Grubb’s Wiltshire theory in the Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania. After he retired in the 1950s, Davis Hanson Grubb tried to document the Wiltshire family’s genealogy back to Walter Grubb of London, and retained F. W. Bennett, secretary of the Society of Genealogists to assist him. Unfortunately, the results of this research have not been published but Bennett’s notes survive in the Society’s files in London.
Bennett quickly found that a number of details in Judge Grubb’s theory were not accurate. For example, a wall plaque in the Cranford Church indicates that the Rev. Thomas Grubbe was born in 1594, too late to have been the father of a John Grubb born in 1610. In fact, the Rev. Thomas Grubb wasn’t married until 1623, and only had one son, named Thomas born in 1627. Bennett also discovered that there is no record that a John Grubb from Wiltshire ever married a Helen Vivian from Cornwall, but he reconciled this with the fact that records are often missing from the period of the civil wars.
From Bennett’s extensive files, we can trace the history of the Wiltshire family. Mayor Henry Grubbe of Devizes, Wiltshire in 1568 had one son, Thomas, and three daughters. Thomas married Susan Hart of Bristol and had four sons who survived to adulthood. All four left wills, confirming that two of them were named Thomas, an interesting English custom that causes considerable confusion. Specifically:
John Grubbe (1588 – 1649) inherited Eastwell, received the begging letter from King Charles, and died without surviving children.
The Rev. Thomas Grubbe (1594 – 1652) had one son, Thomas, and two daughters, Susan and Jane.
Henry Grubbe (1596 – 1630) had one son, John Grubb (1624 – 1667) who is supposed to be the father of the John Grubb who settled in Delaware.
A second Thomas Grubbe (1599 – 1630) also went to Oxford but died without children.
Bennett’s research also identified the fact that only two males of the Wiltshire Grubbe family during the civil war generation survived to become adults. Walter Grubbe went to Oxford, inherited Eastwell and represented Wiltshire in Parliament. It was this Walter who died in 1715 without children and was the last male heir of the family. The other male of Walter’s generation was the John Grubb who was supposed to have gone to Delaware. Therefore, while the identity of the settler’s grandfather changed, the basic Wiltshire theory remained the most accepted genealogy of the Delaware family.
In his excellent 1972 book tracing the genealogy of the Irish Grubb family, the Rev. Geoffrey Watkins Grubb (1908 – 1975) also concluded that the settler’s grandfather was not the Rev. Thomas Grubbe. Geoffrey Grubb further rejected the idea that the Rev. Thomas Grubbe was even from Wiltshire. Geoffrey wrote that Thomas was a cousin of William Grubb, a tailor from the village of Barby, Northamptonshire who died in 1620. In fact, numerous documents clearly prove that the Rev. Thomas Grubbe was from Wiltshire. Geoffrey Grubb also wrote in a footnote that William Grubb’s son, John, was the Royalist who received the begging letter, married Helen Vivian in Cornwall and was the father of the Delaware settler. Geoffrey Grubb believed that most Grubb families are probably related and was interested in establishing that his family was connected to the Delaware Grubb family. However, his theory was little more than a guess that fails to explain how a tailor’s son accumulated the wealth to receive a begging letter from the King.
While he was unsuccessful in resolving the mystery of Delaware settler’s origins, the doubts raised by Rev. Geoffrey Grubb and others about the Wiltshire theory resulted in reopening the issue. In 1979, David Watkins Grubb, Geoffrey’s son, finished Geoffrey’s second book, Grubbs about the Globe and revived Cope’s original Stoke Climsland theory. David was assisted by the late Cyril Grubb, then head of the Grubb Family Association in the UK and late James MacLamroc, a John Grubb descendent who lived in North Carolina. Using the 20 surviving wills from the period, entries in various parish registers and Bishop’s transcripts, and the 1688 notes of Alex Grubb, they developed a detailed history of the Stoke Climsland family that has stood the test of time. However, while they correctly concluded that John’s parents were Henry Grubb and his wife Wilmot, they were unable to find conclusive proof.
As a result, most other researchers still accepted the idea that the settler’s parents were the John Grubb from Wiltshire and his wife Helen Vivian. In the summer of 1998, it was finally discovered in the Potterne parish records that this John Grubb could not have been the father of the John Grubb who settled in Delaware. His son (the John Grubb Jr who was supposed to have been born in Cornwall) actually went to Oxford University and became a minister. The Rev. John Grubb was buried in Potterne on September 23, 1696 ‐ obviously not the Delaware settler. As the Wiltshire family only had two male heirs of the civil war generation, it makes no sense that either would have left for America. Further, it was the custom of men in the Wiltshire family to seek university educations, not to apprentice as tanners! The Wiltshire theory about the origins of the Delaware Grubb family is simply wrong.
SOLVING THE MYSTERY:
Because there were Grubb families throughout England by the 17th century, we must begin by establishing where John Grubb actually came from. Family lore is that John’s youngest son, Peter Grubb, named the town he founded in Pennsylvania Cornwall after his father’s birthplace. This is collaborated by substantial other evidence that John was a member of the Stoke Climsland Grubb family.
John Grubb came to America in 1677 on the Kent. While there is no passenger list per se, there is strong evidence that John Grubb was among the Kent’s passengers. Shortly after the arrival of the Kent, John Grubb became one of the 150 individuals involved with the West Jersey venture to sign the West Jersey Concessions and Agreements. The fact that John signed this document indicates that he was in West Jersey no later than the arrival of the Kent. While the list of signers includes a number of individuals who are known to have been on the Griffen in 1675, it is unlikely that John Grubb arrived earlier than the Kent because his name does not appear on the 1677 census of the area taken before the Kent’s arrival. This census survives in the Records of the New Castle Court. Therefore, it is improbable that John could have been on any ship other than the Kent.
Henry Grubb was also on the Kent. Henry was an indentured servant, whose indenture agreement (published in 1941 by the New Jersey Historical Society) was signed in London on March 28, 1677, just before the Kent sailed.
Henry Grubb was the son of Wilmot Grubb. Before Henry left on the Kent, he received a certificate (effectively a letter of introduction) from the Ratcliffe Quaker Meeting. The Quaker archive at Swathmore College confirmed that the Ratcliffe Meeting was in London, one of the two points of embarkation for the settlers on the Kent. Wilmot Grubb signed Henry’s certificate as his mother clearly establishing the relationship. Unfortunately, the Quaker archives in London confirmed that the minutes of the Ratcliffe Meeting for the period no longer exist, but the text of the certificate survives in the minutes of the Salem Meeting.
Henry Grubb was from Stoke Climsland, Cornwall. The location of Henry’s family was established through Henry’s 1695 will that named Wilmot as his mother and indicated that she was then living in Stoke Climsland. This will survives in the New Jersey Archives. According to parish records, Wilmot Grubb, a Quaker, died in Stoke Climsland in 1698. The certificate Henry received at the Ratcliffe Quaker Meeting in 1677 was also signed by a number of Quakers who are known to have been from Stoke Climsland including Daniel Clark, Tristam Clark and Walter Hawkin. Significantly, one of the other passengers on the Kent was William Clark who was married at Salem in 1679. Henry Grubb was recorded as present at William’s marriage. Neither John nor Henry were members of the major groups on the Kent. The Kent had two large groups of passengers – the Hull contingent comprised of Quakers from Yorkshire, Lincolinshire and Nottinghamshire and the London contingent comprised of Quakers from the city and the surrounding counties. After landing in Salem, both major groups continued up the Delaware River to establish Burlington. However, John and Henry as well as William Clark were among the few passengers who remained in Salem. This suggests that unlike the two major groups, the mini‐contingent from Stoke Climsland intended to settle in Salem, probably because John Fenwick, the founder of Salem, was also from Cornwall.
John and Henry were related. Because Grubb is a rare surname (about one individual in 25,000 has this surname in both England and America) there is a 99.1% statistical probability that it was no coincidence that both John and Henry were on the Kent. Actually, the odds that they were related are substantially higher because John and Henry were among the small number of passengers who left the Kent in Salem. If John wasn’t related to Henry, he would have most likely traveled with the rest of the Kent passengers to Burlington.
The Grubb Family of Stoke Climsland:
By the mid‐1600s, there were three Grubb families in Cornwall located in at least twenty parishes. The largest of these families lived in Stoke Climsland and adjacent parishes in east Cornwall about twelve miles northwest of port city of Plymouth in Devon County. The other Grubb families were located in Truro, 30 miles west of Stoke Climsland, and St. Martin in Meneage near Helston, about twelve miles east of Land’s End. We are not sure of the relationship between these three families and no connection has been established between the Cornish Grubbs and other English Grubb families. While relatively few people immigrated to the Delaware Valley from Cornwall, at least five Cornish Grubbs were among the early settlers to West Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania.
Cornish Grubb family lore is that the family may have come from Germany during the rein of Queen Elizabeth to advise Cornish miners. However, the fact that Grubbs have been identified throughout Cornwall at the beginning of the Elizabethan period suggests that if the family was of German origin, it is more likely they were descended from German Hussites who immigrated to Cornwall in the mid‐1400s. It is also possible that the Cornish Grubbs were of Celtic origin or descended from Danish mariners who settled on the coast. In the seventeenth century, the Cornish people still spoke Gaelic and were related to the population in Wales and Ireland.
The rural town of Stoke Climsland had a population of about 1,150 that were mostly miners and tenant farmers in the Manor of Stoke Climsland, one of 70 manors in the Duchy of Cornwall owned by the King. The boundaries of the Duchy do not correspond to the county lines and include substantial portions of both Cornwall and Devon. While some members of the Stoke Climsland Grubb family probably moved east into Devon, most remained in Cornwall County. This is fortunate because the records of Cornwall County are in far better condition. The Devon County Records Office in Plymouth was destroyed by a German bomb during the blitz.
Cornwall was strongly royalist during the civil wars. In September 1642, Sir John Berkeley recruited an army of 3,000 in Cornwall for the King. Parliamentary forces unsuccessfully invaded Cornwall four times before finally taking the county in 1646. Much of this fighting took place in eastern Cornwall near Stoke Climsland. After 1646, there were also a number of royalist uprisings including August 1649 after King Charles was executed. Cornish royalists continued to holdout on the Scilly Isles off the west coast until June of 1651 when they finally surrendered. It is likely that members of the Stoke Climsland Grubb family were in the royalist army and there is some reason to believe that several may have been lost in the war. After King Charles was executed in 1649, Parliament sold the King’s Cornish manors to pay the expenses of Cromwell’s army. The new owners were pro‐Cromwell and included soldiers in Cromwell’s army who maintained strict control over Cornwall because they feared royalist revolts. These were not happy times in Cornwall. Following the restoration in 1660, the manors were returned to King Charles II and most of them are still owned by the Royal family.
Times became even more difficult for Cornish Quakers after the restoration. There were relatively few Quakers in Cornwall, but Stoke Climsland had an active meeting between 1656 and 1697. After the restoration, twenty royalist ministers petitioned the House of Lords for return of their parishes, including William Pike of Stoke Climsland. Pike was especially hostile towards Quakers and numerous acts of intimidation are documented including a number of incidents when Pike’s son assaulted Quakers.
Ancestors of John Grubb:
We know that John Grubb was born in 1652 (or late 1651) because he indicated that he was 32 when he testified in a 1684 lawsuit. In the late 1970s, Cyril Grubb and James MacLamroc were unable to find a record of John’s birth in Stoke Climsland because the parish register for that year is in very poor condition. However, in 1999 the register was photographed using ultra violet light. Using this technique, it was discovered that on August 16, 1652 Henry Grubb Jr. and his wife Wilmot christened a son, although the name of this son is missing because the page is ripped. After review of all of the other evidence, the inescapable conclusion is that there were no other children born in Stoke Climsland or other area parishes that can possibly be the Delaware settler. Henry Grubb Jr and Wilmot were John Grubb’s parents.
Thomas Grubb, John Grubb’s great grandfather:
By the time John Grubb was born, all known members of the Stoke Climsland Grubb family were descended from Thomas Grubb. Thomas was born about 1540 and was of England’s yeomen class, roughly equivalent to the modern middle class. At the time of his death in July 1616, his assets were valued at 137 pounds. Thomas’ parents are unknown, although his father or grandfather may have been named Henry because Thomas named two surviving sons Henry. Interestingly, Alex Grubb’s 1688 notes indicate that in 1554 a Henry Grubb baptized a son in Stoke Climsland. While this was too late to have been Thomas, this does establish that there was a Henry Grubb in Stoke Climsland that may have been Thomas’ father. Grubbs about the Globe claims that Thomas was the son of the Sir Henry Grubb of Hertfordshire who married Lady Joan Radcliffe. However, this story is contradicted by the evidence in Alex Grubb’s notes that there were Grubbs in Stoke Climsland before Thomas.
Thomas had at least three wives. He married Agnes Jeffrey on January 5, 1562, a second unknown wife, and Johan Williams (Wills), a widow in nearby St Dominic on April 23, 1604. Johan outlived Thomas by eleven years and was buried in St Dominic on November 22, 1627. We know Thomas had a second wife because there were no children by his third marriage and there were simply too many children for all of them to have had the same mother. Thomas had eleven children who were still alive when he died. Since infant mortality was about 50% at the time, it is probable that Thomas had in the range of twenty children in all. In addition to his eight sons discussed below, he had three daughters – Epiphany (who married ____ Peake and later ____ Truscott), Mary (who married ____ Helman), and Jane (baptized March 20, 1579/80 and married ____ Harper).
Henry Grubb "the younger", John Grubb’s grandfather:
Baptized in Stoke Climsland on February 18, 1581, Henry Grubb "the younger" was the son of Thomas and his unknown second wife. Because of the confusion over the fact that Thomas named two sons Henry, it is often incorrectly reported that Henry "the younger" first married sometime before 1611 when he had a daughter named Denise. Actually, Denise was the daughter of Henry Grubb "the elder". Henry Grubb the younger first married on August 1, 1615 to Johan H_____ of Kellybray, a hamlet in Stoke Climsland. The surviving parish register lists no children from this marriage but in his 1688 notes Alex Grubb indicates that Henry’s son, Henry Grubb Jr was baptized in 1617. Cyril Grubb and James MacLamroc also speculated that the John Grubb who died in Stoke Climsland in 1670 was another son of Henry. However, there is no evidence to establish this.
Henry’s first wife, Johan was buried March 31, 1635 and Henry married Jane (or Joan) Bidgood two years later on April 29, 1637. Henry signed the Protestation against Popery in 1641 and was buried in Stoke Climsland on June 19, 1645. His will has not survived.
Henry Grubb Jr, John Grubb’s father:
Baptized in Stoke Climsland in 1617, Henry Grubb Jr was easily the most interesting character in the Stoke Climsland Grubb clan. He signed the Protestation against Popery in 1641 and was listed as a tenant farmer in Stoke Climsland during 1650. We also know Henry was a butcher. On February 3, 1641 he married Margerett Facie who died less than two years later. Her will was proved December 24, 1642. Henry later remarried to Wilmot (maiden name unknown) who was probably born in the early to mid‐1620s.
In the mid‐1650s, Henry became one of the earliest Quakers in Cornwall and had a tendency to challenge authority, a trait that his son John demonstrated on numerous occasions in Delaware. Henry had at least three run‐ins with the law after the restoration of the Rev. William Pike to the Stoke Climsland parish church. On November 11, 1662, Henry was arrested and imprisoned briefly for non‐payment of the tithe. The next year during Lent, one of Henry’s sons (probably Peter or Anthony) was arrested in Saltash, just west of Plymouth for selling meat. Quakers didn’t believe in Lent and selling meat during that time was an act of defiance. In January 1663/4, Henry was arrested again and imprisoned for several years for non‐ payment of the tithe. As a result, he lost the lease on his land.
Henry’s will has not survived and the date of Henry’s death is not recorded but was certainly before 1677. Wilmot remained in Stoke Climsland with her oldest surviving son, Anthony and his family. She was buried in a field and her death was entered into the parish register on September 30, 1698.
Henry had eight known children. Because the parish record is in very poor condition, a number of inaccuracies have been published that are only now being corrected due to recent availability of ultra violet evidence.
Peter Grubb– A butcher who died intestate and unmarried in 1675. His brother, Anthony administered Peter’s estate.
Anthony Grubb – a Quaker who married Mary Marten (recorded April 18, 1672, but may have occurred earlier.) Their known children were William, born March 8, 1672 and buried in Stoke Climsland on February 4, 1696/7, Samuel born February 14, 1676, Wilmot born February 1, 1680/1, and Joseph born January 19, 1683. Anthony accompanied his mother to London in 1677 and signed his brother, Henry’s certificate.
Robert Grubb – Died young and was buried in 1651.
John Grubb – Christened August 16, 1652 and immigrated to America in 1677 where he founded the Delaware Grubb family. Henry Grubb – Came to America with John. Henry’s birth date is unknown, but he was probably slightly younger than John.
Robert Grubb – Baptized February 23, 1655/6, nothing further is known about the second Robert suggesting that he also died young.
Daughter Grubb – Born March 30, 1657. It is often incorrectly reported that this child was a son and some sources have further speculated that this son was Henry. The ultra violet evidence clearly establishes that this child was a daughter. Her name was probably Joane and she signed her brother, Henry’s certificate in London.
Richard Grubb– Born January 23, 1658/9. The only portion of this child’s first name still visible is the rd, which appears to be id under normal light. As a result, Richard’s first name is often incorrectly reported as David. Nothing further is known about Richard also suggesting that he died in childhood.
In 1677, the family probably consisted of the widow Wilmot, her daughter Joane, her son Anthony and his family, along with John and Henry. Because their father had lost the family’s land lease, and the family’s reputation as religious dissidents, neither John or Henry had any real chance of ever acquiring a land lease in Stoke Climsland and certainly would have found the prospects in the new province of West Jersey very attractive.
Other Members of the Stoke Climsland Grubb Family:
From the surviving records, it is possible to construct a reasonably detailed picture of the descendants of Thomas Grubb, John’s great grandfather. The following is based on the work of Cyril Grubb and James MacLamroc and has been updated to include the more recent research. For purposes of this analysis, Thomas’ sons are listed in the order mentioned in his 1616 will, which may not be their actual birth order. Grandsons have been given sequential numbers to avoid confusion.
A. Thomas Grubb Jr (will proved 1628) was probably born in the 1560s and was a yeoman who lived in Kellybray, Stoke Climsland. He married Jane Cressman (probably his second wife) on January 18, 1612/3, who outlived Thomas by eleven years.
(1) Thomas Grubb III was mentioned in his grandfather’s will in 1616 but not his father’s suggesting that he died before 1628.
(2) Edward Grubb (will proved 1643) of Stoke Climsland was the Overseer of the Poor and later signed the Protestation against Popery in 1641. Edward married late in life to Elinor Beile in 1640 and mentioned no children in his will. After her husband’s death, Elinor remarried Richard Reed in 1644.
B. Henry Grubb the elder. Cyril Grubb and James Mac Lamroc believed that Henry the elder was the brother of Thomas Grubb, not his son. However, they did not appreciate that Thomas had children with two wives, a fact that is very obvious because of the number of surviving children. In his will, Thomas treated Henry the elder the same as his other sons and lists Henry amongst his sons rather than separately. In addition to a son, Henry had at least two daughters and is not mentioned in the wills of his brothers, suggesting that he died before 1628.
(3) Henry Grubb Jr was baptized in Stoke Climsland in February 1607, but probably died before 1616 because he is not mentioned in his grandfather’s will. C. Edward Grubb (will proved 1633) was born in Stoke Climsland and at some point moved to nearby St Dominic where his father relocated at the time of his marriage to his third wife. A yeoman, Edward married Margaret Rundle of St Dominic in 1616. Margaret may have married another member of the Grubb clan six years after Edward died. In 1639, a Margaret Rendell married a William Grub in Stoke Climsland. This may have been the William Grubb who was previously married to Elliad and had a son named George in 1638. This William has not been placed in the family tree yet and there are no later references to either William or his son George.
(4) William Grubb was baptized on November 23, 1622 in St Dominic and was mentioned in the wills of his Uncle Thomas (1628), father (1633), and his Uncle Robert (1635/6). Supposedly William settled in Accomac County, Virginia.
(5) John Grubb was baptized on May 32, 1629 in St Dominic and was buried there on August 10, 1629.
D. Robert Grubb (will proved 1635/6) was a yeoman in Stoke Climsland who was baptized there in 1585. He married Johan Wills, his stepsister on February 9, 1606/7 in St Dominic. In addition to their four sons, Robert and Johan had four daughters ‐ Mary baptized August 1, 1612 (who married William Dawe and later ____ Horell), Margaret, Agatha (who married Robert Lucas), and Joane baptized October 14, 1622.
(6) Thomas Grubb was mentioned in the wills of his grandfather (1616) and his father (1635/6). It is reported that Thomas became a fisherman in Barbados where he died childless in 1650. Supposedly, his will and that of his wife Joan are preserved in the island’s archives.
(7) Richard Grubb (will proved 1684) was a yeoman who was listed as a tenant farmer in Stoke Climsland during 1650. He married Petronell John in 1658 and had seven children including Richard Jr (will proved 1695), Steven, Petronell (died young), Johan, Elizabeth, Petronell, and Robert. Richard left a very detailed will naming his entire family and his assets were valued at 372 pounds, a substantial sum.
(8) Sampson Grubb was baptized on October 14, 1622 and thought by Cyril Grubb and James MacLamroc to have died young. However, the new ultra violet evidence discovered that on August 17, 1652 a Sampson Grubb baptized a son of unknown name in Stoke Climsland. There are no further entries for Sampson or his family suggesting they moved away or died.
(9) Edward Grubb was baptized in December 1626. Nothing further is known about this child.
E. Anthony Grubb (will proved 1631) was a yeoman in Stoke Climsland who also served as churchwarden about 1627. He married Susan (maiden name unknown – will proved 1639/40) and in addition to two sons, they had a daughter named Mary who was baptized in 1611 and married Anthony Trehane about 1631. Anthony Grubb’s inventory was valued at 296 pounds.
(10) Anthony Grubb Jr (will proved 1682/3) signed the Protestation against Popery in 1641 and was listed as a tenant farmer in the manor of Stoke Climsland in 1650. His wife’s name was Jane and they were active Quakers beginning in the mid‐1650s. They had seven children including Anthony III (a weaver who married Constance and had two sons and two daughters), Jane, Elizabeth (who married Samuel Allen), Steven, Orange (who married Pearce Richards), Peirce (who married Hanna ____ and had two daughters and a son) and Thomasine (who was baptized December 6, 1651 and married John Symons). Anthony’s assets were valued at only nine pounds at the time of his death.
(11) Richard Grubb of Stoke Climsland was married to the another Wilmot. We know she was a different individual than Henry Grubb Jr’s wife because they both had children in 1657. Richard and Wilmot had a daughter named Sarah born April 3, 1657, an unnamed daughter on April 9, 1660, a son Thomas on June 9, 1663 and a son Richard Jr on January 13, 1668. Thomas (born 1663) has been incorrectly attributed to Richard (number 7 above) and Richard (born 1668) is often omitted because of the confusion over the two Wilmots.
F. David Grubb was a churchwarden in West Looe, Talland about 12 miles southwest of Stoke Climsland. His wife’s name was Thomasine and they had five sons before his death in 1632/3.
(12) Anthony Grubb (will proved 1660/1) was a clothier in West Looe, Talland who married Marian (will proved 1668). Anthony died childless and his estate was valued at 88 pounds.
(13) Roger Grubb, also of West Looe, was mentioned in the wills of his Uncle Thomas (1628) and brother Anthony (1660/1). All of Roger’s children were daughters.
(14) Thomas Grubb (will proved 1673) was baptized in 1625/6 at Talland and was mentioned in the wills of his Uncle Thomas (1628) and brother Anthony (1660/1). His wife’s name is unknown. Thomas was a mariner who had four children: Anthony; Thomas Jr: Thomasine: and Richard – all mentioned in the wills his brother Anthony (1660/1) and sister‐in‐law Marian (1668). Thomas’ son Richard (will proved 1693) also became a mariner who served on the H.M.S. Resolution.
(15) Gabriel Grubb of West Looe married Elizabeth (maiden name unknown) and they had children named David, Anthony, Marian and another child. A Quaker, it has been reported that Gabriel came to the Delaware Valley in the late‐1670s where he died about 1682 and that his son, David lived in Burlington, New Jersey in 1730.
(16) Richard Grubb (will proved 1677) of St Cleer (five miles west of Stoke Climsland) may have been married to Katherine (maiden name unknown) and they had three children, mentioned but not named in Anthony’s will (1660/1). One of Richard’s sons was named John, but this John could not have been the Delaware settler because he christened a daughter named Martha in St Cleer on October 2, 1679 when the Delaware settler was in America. Supposedly Richard’s eldest son, Thomas (born 1651) immigrated to Burlington, New Jersey in 1685 and that Richard’s youngest son, Richard Jr (born 1662) settled in Richmond County, Virginia where he died unmarried in 1698.
G. Peter Grubb of Callington, adjacent to Stoke Climsland, was mentioned in the will of his father (1616) and signed the Protestation against Popery in 1641. He was buried in St Dominic on May 5, 1650, unmarried.
H. Henry Grubb the younger (see earlier discussion)
(17) Henry Grubb Jr (see earlier discussion)
PART THREE JOHN GRUBB (1652 – 1708) The Settler in Delaware:
Because John Grubb was from Cornwall, his speech and customs were very different from most of the early settlers in the Delaware Valley who came from the northern Midlands. However, John’s story in the Delaware Valley was very typical of the early settlers. He was a man who came from limited means and took part in the exceptional opportunity that was the Delaware Valley. By the mid‐1670s, the Society of Friends faced a crisis – two‐thirds of Quaker children were migrating to the cities and leaving the church. While the persecution of Quakers abated at the beginning of the decade because of the Toleration Act, Quaker parents found it too expensive to establish their children when they came of age. To Quaker leaders, the solution was to create a colony across the Atlantic in West Jersey where land could be made available inexpensively.
John’s father, Henry Grubb Jr was a Cornish tenant farmer and butcher who was an early Quaker. Imprisoned in 1663 for his beliefs, Henry lost the family land lease in Stoke Climsland. By 1677, he was dead and Wilmot; his widow was living with her oldest son, Anthony and his family. Her two younger sons, John and Henry had little prospect of ever being established in their home community.
Christened in Stoke Climsland on August 16, 1652, John was apprenticed as a tanner about the time his father went to jail. He probably finished his apprenticeship about 1675 and had several years to earn a small amount of money before he left for America on the Kent in 1677. The fare was high – five pounds, but for only another five pounds John could buy enough land for a tannery and a decent sized farm. Apparently, John only had five pounds but realized that once in West Jersey he could easily earn the rest. His younger brother, Henry couldn’t pay the fare and instead agreed to become an indentured servant for three years.
Settlement of West Jersey began in 1675 when Major John Fenwick, a Cornishman and one of the two original Quaker purchasers of West Jersey, sailed on the Griffen and founded Salem, across the river from New Castle. Fenwick quickly experienced problems with almost everyone including Edward Byllynge (the other purchaser of West Jersey), William Penn and the other West Jersey trustees, as well as Governor Andros in New York. These disputes clouded Fenwick’s titles. A number of the Salem settlers became disenchanted with Fenwick, and ultimately relocated across the Delaware to the Brandywine region on the modern border between Pennsylvania and Delaware.
The first group of Delaware Valley settlers organized by William Penn arrived on the Kent in West Jersey two years after the Griffen. After picking up passengers from the Yorkshire port city of Hull, the Kent sailed from London in late spring 1677 with 230 settlers. Penn himself remained in England.
At the time of the Kent’s departure, William Penn and the other trustees still had not secured the King’s approval for the sale of West Jersey from Lord Berkeley. As a result, West Jersey remained under the jurisdiction of New York. Because of the difficulties created by Major Fenwick, Penn’s agents on the Kent were instructed to meet with Governor Andros in New York before proceeding to West Jersey. In August, the Kent landed at Sandy Hook outside New York harbor. At the time, Andros was also experiencing problems with Carteret’s son in East Jersey over the issue of duties, and made it clear to Penn’s agents that the Kent settlers would remain under his political control and would have to pay the appropriate customs. As instructed, the Kent cleared customs at New Castle, and crossed the river to disembark its passengers near Major Fenwick’s settlement at Salem.
Shortly after the arrival of the Kent, John Grubb became one of the 150 individuals involved with the West Jersey venture to sign the West Jersey Concessions and Agreements. Largely based on the ideas of Edward Byllynge, a radical republican, the West Jersey Concessions and Agreements was one of the most democratic constitutions of the colonial period. For example, all male inhabitants were given the vote, the legislative branch was granted broad powers, and capital punishment was limited to murder and treason. In August 1676, the trustees and the proprietors first signed this constitution in London. A year later, the resident proprietors and other West Jersey inhabitants signed the constitution just after the Kent arrived. The fact that John was one of the signatories was not unusual because almost every free adult male in the colony at that time also signed. However, as an indentured servant, Henry Grubb was not one of the signatories. Before their departure, Penn had instructed his agents to settle as far from Fenwick’s colony as possible because of the difficulties with Fenwick. Most of the Kent’s 230 passengers sailed 60 miles upriver from Salem and established Burlington City. While incomplete, the records of the Kent do not list John Grubb among the Burlington settlers. Since John was in Brandywine no later than July 1678, it is unlikely he traveled upriver. However, Henry Grubb relocated to Burlington from Salem after completing his three years as an indentured servant. In 1683 he married Mary Perkins, the daughter of one of the full shareholders. Henry is remembered in Burlington history for opening the first tavern in the area. Henry and Mary had three children ‐ a son who died as an infant and two daughters. Henry died in Burlington in 1706 and left no descendants with the Grubb family name.
In 1678, Robert Wade, one of the Griffen settlers who left Salem for Brandywine, purchased 500 acres on the south side of Upland Creek. That July, John Grubb and his friend Richard Buffington entered into an agreement with Wade to farm this property. Upland was a small settlement across the river from Salem and several miles north of the modern border between Delaware and Pennsylvania. At that time, the population of the entire Brandywine region including Upland consisted of native Americans and several hundred Europeans, few of English origin. Upland and New Castle were the only settlements in the Delaware Valley with courts, i.e. several part‐time magistrates, some of whom had remained in office since the Dutch period. Wade erected a large house that became the first regular meeting place for Quakers in what was to become Pennsylvania.
The next year, John Grubb and Richard Buffington used their earnings to acquire their own property. On November 25, 1679, they recorded at the court in Upland their joint purchase of 340 acres on the southwest side of Upland Creek adjacent to Wade’s property. Apparently Wade also wanted this property. While William Penn had not yet received the charter for Pennsylvania, by 1680 Penn’s intentions were commonly known. Upland was the leading candidate to become the capital of Penn’s colony, and the Upland Creek tract would have become prime property if Upland was selected.
Wade accused Grubb and Buffington of breach of contract and embezzling his grain. Wade also claimed that Grubb and Buffington had gelded his bull and ram, and that Grubb had boasted of the deed after consuming a bottle of rum. After arbitration failed, the court at New Castle heard the charges in December 1680, and the jury found for the defendants, Grubb and Buffington. This didn’t end the matter, and shortly thereafter Wade was in possession of the Grubb‐Buffington tract. Gilbert Cope speculates that they transferred their property to Wade in repayment of some debt. However, this seems improbable because Grubb and Buffington won the court case. It is more likely that Wade made Grubb and Buffington an attractive offer for the property. While the exact details are unknown, John Grubb then acquired a one third interest in another 600 acre tract on the branches of Naaman’s Creek, a few miles south of the modern Delaware‐Pennsylvania border. This tract was jointly owned with two Dutchmen, Isaac Savoy and David Bilderbeck. Buffington acquired his own tract on Brandywine Creek in what was to become East Bradford Township.
John’s dispute with Robert Wade is probably the reason there has been considerable confusion concerning John’s religion. We know he was not a Quaker at the time of his death. However, all of his known actions until his dispute with Wade suggest that he was a Quaker until then. He probably became an inactive Quaker about 1680 because Wade was the most prominent Quaker on the west side of the Delaware River and the only meeting place was in his house.
William Penn was granted the charter for Pennsylvania in 1681, and sailed from England the summer of the next year. Just before he left, Penn purchased Delaware from the Duke of York because the Duke decided that it was too troublesome to administer Delaware from New York. Penn arrived at New Castle on October 29, 1682 and was met by a group of early settlers, including John Grubb. Then Penn changed the name of Upland to Chester and announced his decision to establish Philadelphia further upriver. As a result, Wade’s tract on what was now Chester Creek did not become as valuable as Wade had hoped. One of the early tasks of the new colony was to record tracts owned by the few settlers already in the area. On September 19, 1682, even before Penn arrived, a survey was made of the Naaman’s Creek property for John Grubb and his partners. This survey did not subdivide the property between the three partners, and later this was to cause considerable problems with William Penn. The survey was confirmed by a warrant dated April 26, 1684. Today, this area appears on the map as Grubb’s Landing, although John’s sons probably established the landing itself after his death. A modern street down to the river from Route 13 is named Grubb’s Landing Road. Another street in the area named Grubb Road ran along the southern side of Naaman’s Creek. The eastern half of this street from Route 13 to Arden became Harvey Road in 1887, but the portion west of Arden still retains its original name for several miles.
Meanwhile John and his wife Frances (Abt. 1661 ‐ Bef. 1721) started their family. We know nothing about her origins or when she married John. However, the fact that their first child, Emanuel, wasn’t born until July 1682, suggests that John and Frances were married in America. It appears that she was a Quaker and was somewhat younger than most Quaker women at the time of marriage, which averaged 24 in the Delaware Valley.
Emanuel’s obituary in Penn’s Gazette eighty‐six years later reported that his parents had lived in a cave along the banks of the Delaware River until John finished their house, and that Emanuel was born in this cave. The story also claims that Emanuel was the first child of English parents born in Delaware. However, Gilbert Cope indicates that at least six children of English parents were born in the area before Emanuel. The story about the cave seems improbable because John already lived on the Naaman’s Creek tract for a year or so by the time Emanuel was born.
Between 1682 and 1700, John and Frances had nine children who lived to become adults. This was a very large completed family for the period. In England, completed families averaged three children, and in the Delaware Valley the average was five because of lower infant mortality.
John’s next land transaction was recorded on September 3, 1691 involving four acres purchased from Thomas Gilpin adjacent to the Naaman’s Creek tract. Here John built his tannery that became the center of a substantial tanning industry that lasted in the area until the nineteenth century.
John began his political career in 1692 when he was elected to a one‐year term in the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly from New Castle County. At that time Brandywine, including Grubb’s Landing and Marcus Hook, were all in New Castle County, which was one of the three lower counties of Pennsylvania i.e. Delaware. The major issue that year was a dispute between the three lower counties and the rest of Pennsylvania over the need for military defenses. King William’s War with the French had started three years earlier. The lower counties, where Quakers were a minority, strongly urged that defenses be established. They were opposed by the upper counties that were solidly Quaker and did not feel exposed to a potential threat from the French fleet. A tax to construct defenses was proposed, but rejected by the Assembly. Unfortunately, the published minutes of this session only record who was present and the bills adopted so that we don’t know John’s position on the issues or his comments during debates. The next year, John did not return to the Assembly and was appointed a Justice of the Peace. He was also responsible for tax collection and his own property was assessed at 200 pounds ‐ an amount which one source termed, moderately substantial.
In 1698, John was elected to the Assembly for his second term. He also purchased another 108 acres adjacent to Grubb’s Landing from the widow of Thomas Gilpin. Cope reports that the title for this property became the subject of dispute between John Grubb and William Penn’s Secretary, James Logan. However, closer examination of Logan’s letters indicates that the dispute started about 1691 and concerned the Naaman’s Creek property. From the beginning of the colony, Penn planned several 10,000‐acre manors for his heirs. One of these manors, known as the Rocklands, was to be in Brandywine including the Naaman’s Creek area. Penn purchased 5,000 acres from William Stockdale, and traded land in West Jersey for Isaac Savoy and David Bilderbeck’s portion of the tract they owned jointly with John Grubb. John refused Penn’s similar offer to relocate. Further, John took the position that because he already lived on the land, that he should have first choice of which 200 acre portion he would receive in the subdivision. This would have resulted in a somewhat irregular property line that was unacceptable to Penn. As a result, the two never agreed on the line. In 1691 and 1692, Penn’s agents complained that Grubb was making daily Havock and Spoyle of the timber on that portion of the tract claimed by Penn.
William Penn had returned to England in 1684 to take care of his affairs in London. However, his short trip turned into fifteen years. Charles II died in 1685 and his brother, the Duke of York, became King James II. Penn found himself in the position of being one of the most influential individuals in London. This was not to last long as James was overthrown three years later in the Glorious Revolution, and went into exile in France. William and Mary of Orange assumed the throne and Penn was suspected of treason for his support of Charles and James. Penn’s charter was revoked and Penn himself went into hiding for several years to avoid arrest. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania rapidly expanded and Philadelphia became the second largest city in the English New World after Boston. London was not pleased with its thriving colony. Renewal of the war with France was a serious threat and Pennsylvania still refused to contribute to colonial defense. Another issue was Pennsylvania’s failure to enforce laws concerning piracy and smuggling. The Crown decided that only a Quaker proprietor could solve the Pennsylvania problem and allowed Penn to petition for the return of his colony. After agreeing to address the defense and piracy issues, Penn returned to Pennsylvania in 1699 with his young Secretary, James Logan.
Upon his arrival, Penn ordered Logan to complete the establishment of the manors and resolve the property line dispute with John Grubb. However, the matter was not settled and it appears that the dispute carried over into politics. In January 1700, Penn called a special session of the Assembly to deal with the piracy question. Apparently the sheriff of New Castle failed to collect the votes from the upper Brandywine Hundred area. John Grubb along with Cornelius Empson ‐ who was to have his own problems with Logan ‐ led a petition drive to overturn the election results. On January 25, the Assembly met and decided that the sheriff should be rebuked, but that the session would start without holding a new election because the session was limited to just the question of enacting stronger piracy laws. In October of that year, John won a seat in the regular Assembly election. However, the voters in the southern part of New Castle County complained that they had not been notified, and the Assembly ordered a new election. This time John was defeated.
At Penn’s request, the Assembly recodified the colony’s laws but failed to address the defense issue. The upper and lower counties remained as divided as ever on the need for defenses. Delaware appealed directly to the crown and was granted its own independent legislature in 1704. Penn himself returned to England in 1701 and would never again visit his colony.
Logan remained in Pennsylvania as Penn’s agent. In a letter dated February 26, 1702, Logan instructed Isaac Taylor to resurvey Stockdale’s plantation and divide Penn’s portion of the Naaman’s Creek tract from the land owned by that troublesome man John Grubb. However, John apparently objected to the resulting line and cut down the marked trees. One recent source incorrectly reported that Grubb was not in possession of the disputed tract when he died. In fact, Logan’s letters of 1712 indicate that John’s children still held the property, and that the dispute remained unresolved. Ultimately, the Grubb family not only retained the Naaman’s Creek tract that became Grubb’s Landing, but also acquired substantial portions of the Stockdale property to the extent that the Grubb holdings became commonly known as Stockdale’s plantation. By now, John’s oldest son, Emanuel, had come of age and became increasingly responsible for the tannery. There is a suggestion in one of Logan’s letters that John may have suffered a serious illness during this period. On December 29, 1703/4, John purchased eleven lots together with four and a half acres of woodland in Marcus Hook ‐ which is just on the Pennsylvania side of the modern border and is only a few miles north of Naaman’s Creek. John and Frances, along with their younger children, moved out of the Naaman’s Creek homestead to Marcus Hook. On February 26, 1705/6, John purchased two additional lots with dwellings at Marcus Hook, adjacent to his existing property. A year later, he also purchased 175 acres in Brandywine Hundred at what is now Arden, Delaware ‐ which is just inland from the Naaman’s Creek property. His second son had become of age and settled as a farmer on this new tract.
After his death at age 56 on April 4, 1708, John was buried at the St. Martin’s Episcopal Church cemetery in Marcus Hook. The original St. Martins was built in 1700, although the current structure dates to 1845. The deed stipulates that no Quaker be buried there. While this may have been relaxed later, it is unlikely that John Grubb would have been interred at St. Martin’s in 1708 had he been a Quaker at that time. Frances remarried to Richard Buffington ‐ John Grubb’s old friend. They lived on the Brandywine Creek tract in East Bradford, Pennsylvania. The date of her death is not recorded but was before 1721 when Buffington remarried again.
John Grubb’s major asset at the time of his death was 500 acres, an amount typical of early Delaware settlers even though the average farm of the period only used eighty acres. Land was becoming more expensive and was selling for two pounds per acre improved and six shillings per acre unimproved. Quakers tended to stockpile land for the next generation and divided their acreage equally among their sons. In many cases, land was transferred to the children when they married to help establish a sound foundation for grandchildren. Non‐Quakers left a double share of their land to the oldest son. As a result, Quaker children of the first generation born in America did much better economically than their non‐ Quaker counterparts. While John was not a Quaker at that time, his will followed the Quaker pattern and gave equal shares of his land to each of his seven sons. Apparently it was not possible to divide his land because of the ongoing dispute with Penn. The formal division didn’t occur until 1761, by which time only two of his sons remained alive. There appears to have been an informal understanding among his sons concerning the use of this land and a more formal division only became necessary to establish the rights of the next generation. John and Frances had fifty‐seven grandchildren.
John’s other assets were substantially higher than average because he was both a farmer and was engaged in the tanning trade. These assets were valued at 566 pounds, including debts of 303 pounds owed to him. John left a cow and one‐third of his personal estate to Frances and various amounts to his daughters.
CHILDREN OF JOHN AND FRANCES GRUBB:
Emanuel Grubb (1682 ‐ 1767) married Anna Hedge Koch in 1706 and was a tanner. They lived in the original house built by his father and had 12 children by 1733. The family house near Grubb’s Landing was replaced by a two story stone dwelling built in 1783 by Amer Augustus Grubb, Emanuel’s grandson. This house still exists and is owned by the Holy Rosary Church that uses it as a retreat. Like his father, Emanuel was not a Quaker and is buried along with Anna at St. Martin’s in Marcus Hook. Emanuel’s 2nd great grandson was Judge Ignatius Cooper Grubb of the Delaware Court of Appeals.
John Grubb 2nd (1684 ‐ 1758) married Rachael Buckley and they had eight children. John was a Quaker farmer in Brandywine Hundred (now Arden, Delaware) and was probably responsible for establishing Grubb’s Landing. His great grandson was Charles Gilpin, Mayor of Philadelphia in 1850‐53, and 4th great grandson was Commodore Warner Norton Grubb, U.S.N.R. during World War Two. Joseph Grubb (1685 ‐ 1747) married Sarah Elizabeth Perkins and had seven children between 1716 and 1728. He lived on Naaman’s Creek and in 1720 acquired an additional 120 acres of Stockdale’s plantation. Both Joseph and Sarah are buried at St Martin’s. Two of Joseph’s 2nd great grandsons, Thomas Samuel Grubb and his brother John Edgar Grubb, were Confederate soldiers from Virginia who were lost in action during the Civil War.
Charity Grubb (1687 ‐ 1781) married Richard Beeson in 1706 and they moved to Virginia and later to North Carolina. Charity and Richard were Quakers and had eight children.
Phoebe Grubb (1690 ‐ 1769) married Richard Buffington Jr. in 1715 and had twelve children. They were also Quakers and lived at Marshall Top, Pa. Phoebe married 2nd Simon Hadley.
Samuel Grubb (1691 ‐ 1760) was a member of the Concord, Pennsylvania Quaker Meeting and married Mary Bellerby in 1745. A mason by trade, he purchased 181 acres in Bradford Township, Pa. and also owned land in Lebanon County, Pa. in conjunction with his brother Peter’s iron works. He died without children.
Henry Grubb (1692 ‐ 1771) purchased 250 acres in Middletown Township, Delaware County, Pa. and died unmarried.
Nathaniel Grubb (1693 ‐ 1760) married Ann Moore at the Concord Quaker Meeting in 1725 and had eight children. A carpenter by trade, he purchased 500 acres in Willistown Township, Pa. in 1726 in addition to property in Marcus Hook and Philadelphia.
Peter Grubb (1702 ‐ 1754) married Martha Bates in 1732 and had 2 children before she died in 1740. A mason by trade, Peter founded the historic Cornwall or Grubb’s iron works in Lebanon County, Pa. He was remarried in 1742 to Hannah Mendenhall at the Concord Quaker Meeting. In addition to the iron works, he also owned extensive property and died in Wilmington. Both of his sons, Curtis and Peter Jr. were Colonels in the Revolution, and his 2nd great grandson was Civil War General Edward Burd Grubb Jr. of Burlington County, New Jersey, later unsuccessful republican candidate for Governor in 1889 and U.S. Envoy to Spain in 1890 during the Harrison Administration. Edward’s brother was Isaac Parker Grubb, a Union soldier who died at the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1864.
ANCESTORS OF FRANCES GRUBB:
In his 1893 work, Gilbert Cope provides no information about John Grubb’s wife other than that her name was Frances. In December of that year, Judge Ignatius Grubb wrote that her maiden name was Vane, and that she was the daughter of Sir Henry Vane the Younger (1613 – 1662). Sir Henry Vane was a Puritan who immigrated to Boston and became the second governor of Massachusetts. After serving his term, he went back to England to participate in the Civil War and became one of the main spokespersons for Cromwell. Sir Henry Vane was executed after the restoration. The story is that Frances Vane was born in 1642, first married Edward Kewkewich of Minhincot, Cornwall and became a Quaker. After Edward’s death, she married John Grubb in Cornwall about 1675 and came to America with John. Supposedly, her money enabled John to purchase land upon their arrival.
This story is pure nonsense. In fact, the daughter of Sir Henry Vane was buried in Shipborne parish, Kent County, England on June 4, 1683. Further, if John’s wife was the daughter of Sir Henry Vane, she would have had three children after her 50th birthday!
Based on her children’s birth dates, Frances Grubb was probably born about 1660. A Frances Vane was born that year in Randolph County, Virginia. Interestingly, a John Vane, also born in Randolph County moved to Ocean Township, New Jersey where he died in 1710. Also the same year, a Samuel Vane was named in the will of Ann Hartup of New Castle County, Delaware. While none of this evidence is conclusive, it was quite common for Quakers in the older colonies to move to the Delaware Valley after Penn established his colony there.