John Grubb
John Grubb was a two-term member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly and was one of the original settlers in a portion of Brandywine Hundred that became Claymont, Delaware. He founded a large tannery that continued in operation for over 100 years at what became known as Grubb's Landing. He was also one of the 150 signers of the Concessions and Agreements for Province of West Jersey.
Born in Stoke Climsland, Cornwall, he was the 4th son of Henry Grubb Jr. and Wilmot. Henry was an early Quaker who was imprisoned several times for his beliefs. With no chance of being established in his home village, John and his older brother Henry emigrated to the West Jersey colony in 1677 on the Kent, the first ship of settlers organized by William Penn. While he arrived without the funds required to buy his own land, by 1682, he earned enough money to acquire a one-third interest in a tract on Naaman's Creek in Brandywine Hundred where he built his tannery. John was one of the early settlers who greeted William Penn in 1682 when he arrived in New Castle before he founded Philadelphia. Ultimately Penn and Grubb clashed over property they jointly owned and were unable to settle the dispute in their lifetimes.
In the early 1700s, John Grubb moved to Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1708. At that time, John owned 500 acres, which was typical of the early settlers to the Delaware Valley. He was survived by his wife, Frances and nine children. The Grubb Family extensively researched her origins and concluded that there is no primary evidence that establishes her maiden name or when they were married.
Biography
Early years in Cornwall
The Grubb family was first recorded in Stoke Climsland, Cornwall in 1329 and over the centuries lived in the small village as tenant farmers and trades people. John's father, Henry Grubb Jr. was a butcher who rented a small piece of land. He was also an early Quaker who was imprisoned in January 1663/4 for his beliefs. He had eight known children, including at least seven with his second wife, Wilmot. Christened in Stoke Climsland on August 16, 1652, John was Henry's fourth known son. In his youth, John apprenticed as a tanner with the Hawkins family, Stoke Climsland Quakers closely associated with the Grubb family.1677 - Sailing on the Kent
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 because Quaker parents found it too expensive to establish their children when they came of age. To Quaker leaders including William Penn, the solution was to create a colony across the Atlantic in West Jersey where land could be made available inexpensively.Settlement of West Jersey began in 1675 when Major John Fenwick, one of the two original Quaker purchasers of West Jersey, sailed on the Griffen and founded Salem, across the river from New Castle, Delaware. Fenwick quickly experienced problems with almost everyone including Edward Byllynge, and Governor Andros in New York. A number of the Salem settlers became disenchanted with Fenwick and relocated across the Delaware to the Brandywine region on the modern border between Pennsylvania and Delaware. William Penn was appointed as trustee to settle Byllynge's financial difficulties and decided to organize settlers to populate Byllynge's portion of West Jersey. Penn sent letters to Quaker Meetings announcing his intention to lease ships beginning with the Kent leaving in the late spring of 1677.
By 1677, John's father was dead and his widow, Wilmot, lived with her oldest son, Anthony and his family. John finished his apprenticeship about the time the small Quaker Meeting in Stoke Climsland heard about William Penn's plans for West Jersey. The Meeting organized a small contingent of young adults from Stoke Climsland to sail on the Kent. The fare was high: five pounds, but for only another five pounds John could buy enough land in the Delaware Valley for a tannery and a decent sized farm. John's brother Henry could not pay the fare and agreed to become an indentured servant for three years.
After picking up passengers from the Yorkshire port city of Hull, the Kent sailed from London in late spring with 230 settlers and landed outside of Salem. While some of the Kent's passengers settled in Salem, most remained with the ship when it sailed up the Delaware River and established Burlington, West Jersey. Henry and John Grubb and the rest of the Stoke Climsland group remained in Salem. Penn himself remained in England for another five years.
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, West Jersey's governing document was one of the most democratic constitutions of the colonial period. 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. After he finished his three-year indenture, Henry moved to Burlington where he opened a tavern and became an elected official. He was survived by two daughters.
1678 - 1681
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 European population of the entire Brandywine region including Upland consisted of only several hundred, mostly Dutch and Swedes. Wade erected a large house that became the first regular meeting place for Quakers in what was to become Pennsylvania. The next year, Grubb and Buffington used their earnings to acquire their own property. On November 25, 1679, they recorded at Upland Court their joint purchase of a tract on the southwest side of Upland Creek adjacent to Wade's property. 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.Wade accused Grubb and Buffington of breach of contract and embezzling his grain. 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. Historian 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 Wade made an attempt to convince William Penn's agents to establish the new colony's capital at Upland, Penn announced his decision to establish Philadelphia further upriver. As a result, Wade's tract did not become as valuable as Wade had hoped.
John's dispute with Robert Wade is probably the reason there has been considerable confusion concerning John's religion. All of his known actions until this dispute 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.
Grubb's Landing, Delaware
After selling the tract in Upland, John acquired a one-third interest in a tract on the Delaware River at Naaman's Creek in modern Claymont, Delaware, just south of Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. This tract was jointly owned with two Dutchmen, Isaac Savoy and David Bilderbeck. The Naaman's Creek tract was the beginning of what would be the Grubb family's homestead for almost 300 years. Buffington acquired his own tract on Brandywine Creek in East Bradford, Pennsylvania. William Penn was granted the charter for Pennsylvania in 1681, and sailed from England 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.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. Grubb's original house was rebuilt in 1783 by this great grandson, Amer Grubb and today is the administrative building for the Holy Rosary Church in Claymont. 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.
John's next land transaction was recorded on September 3, 1691 involving a tract 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.