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Family Life

The Origin of the Grubb Family

The Grubb family can be traced back to John Grubbe (1620-1696), a Cromwellian settler in the southeast of Ireland. The Grubb family converted to Quakerism in 1676 by a wandering preacher named John Exham, and were thus amongst the earliest Irish members of the Society of Friends. To be a Quaker involved considerable sacrifice, as in those days, in addition to the discrimination in official appointments and education applied to all those who were not members of the Church of Ireland, the Quakers were not prepared to take oaths – a great hinderance to them in business and legal manners.

Howard’s Parents

Thomas Grubb, FRS (commemorative plaque)

Thomas Grubb, according to Quaker records, was born in Waterford on 4th August 1800. Although his birth was registered with the Society of Friends, his marriage and the birth of his son Howard were not so it is probable that he did not remain an active member. He married Sarah Palmer (1798-1883) in Kilkenny in 1826. They had eight children in total, of which Howard, later Sir Howard Grubb, was the youngest son. He was born in 1844 in Rathmines, Dublin.

Thomas was the Chief Engineer at Bank of Ireland but always had a huge interest in the world of lenses. In the 1830s, Thomas Grubb pioneered telescope manufacturing from his base close to Charlemont Bride on Dublin’s Grand Canal. He founded the Grubb Telescope Company and was an innovator in the field of telescope making and optical design. One of his earliest instruments – the Markree telescope in the West of Ireland – was, for several years, the largest telescope in the world. He was also responsible for the construction of the Great Melbourne Telescope. His firm grew rapidly over the years and became one of the leading telescope manufacturers in the world.

On 30th July 2018, The National Committee for Science and Engineering Commemorative Plaques, the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) and the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) came together to erect a permanent marker commemorating Thomas Grubb’s achievements and his contribution to astronomy in Ireland and worldwide. The plaque is located at the site of Grubb’s first engineering works in Dublin – on Canal Road, Dublin 6.

Howard Grubb’s Family

Howard Grubb married Mary Hester Walker on 5th September 1871 in St Peter’s Church (Church of Ireland). Mary was born in 1854 in New Orleans, of Irish parents. Her father, George Hamilton Walker, had been born in Kells, Co. Meath. Their first home was at 17 Leinster Square, Rathmines, close by the Optical Works. The six children of this marriage were Ethel (1872), Howard Thomas (1875), George Rudolph (1878), Romney Robinson (1879), Herman (1882) and Mary (1889).

Thomas Grubb retired and handed over the Grubb Company to Howard in 1868 while he was studying to become a civil engineer at Trinity College Dublin. Howard formalised the business and built a new factory to capitalise on the rapid growth of astrophotography and astrophysics. The remarkable family business operated in Rathmines, Dublin, for nearly a century.