Isaac Grubb
Mayor of Oxford 1857/8
Isaac Grubb (1808–1885) was a baker and corn dealer who used to boast that he had never done a "penn'orth of business" with the colleges.
At the time of the 1841 census Grubb, who was then 33, was living over his shop at 22 Queen Street with his wife Sarah (31 and born in Headington) and their daughter Mary (15), plus one servant. They shared their living accommodation with five baker's shopmen.
Grubb was first elected on to the City Council in 1841. He was a prominent Baptist at New Road Baptist Chapel, and in 1850 complained that it was impossible for a dissenter to become mayor, sheriff, alderman, or magistrate in Oxford. (Just three years later, however, in 1853, he and John Towle were chosen Oxford's first Nonconformist aldermen.)
At the time of the 1851 census Grubb and his wife were still living over the Queen Street shop with one servant, and a baker's journeyman and a baker's shopman.
In 1854 Grubb made another stand in support of nonconformity: after stating that he had "no connection with the University, and nothing for which to thank any member thereof", he moved that the council should present to Parliament a petition that none of Her Majesty's subjects should be denied the chance of a university education.
Grubb was well known for not putting up with nonsense (he refused to have "that bauble", namely the city mace, carried before him when he attended Carfax Church), and for standing up for Town against Gown. When he became Mayor in 1857, W.E. Sherwood tells us about the following event that year in Oxford Yesterday (1927):
The City, too, was still to a great extent under the control of the University…. A mayor, Mr. Isaac Grubb, greatly daring, when summoned with the Corporation to attend the annual sermon at St. Mary's on St. Scholastica's day — a sermon putting the town in what was considered its proper place, and for which, as an additional insult, they paid the fee — had
'Stated in emphatic language
What he'd be before he'd stand it.'Whether it was the vigour of his refusal which scared them, or whether it was that the University thought it was about time that a quarrel of five hundred years ago should be forgotten, we know not, but at any rate the summons was not pressed, nor was it renewed.
The city had contributed to the upkeep of the city church (St Martin's at Carfax) since at least 1579, but Grubb refused to pay the then yearly contribution of £35 on the grounds that any contribution from city funds towards a church was contrary to the Municipal Reform Act. He also refused to go to Court to present an address of congratulation to Queen Victoria because he would have had to wear court dress, and he had no mind to make a Tomfool of himself.
At the time of the 1861 census, four years after his term of office as Mayor, Grubb (53) can be seen living with his wife Sarah (45) and niece Sarah Bateman (11) of Headington at Somerville House on the Banbury Road: they have one servant. He is described as a Magistrate & Corn Dealer, Baker & Mealman.
In 1867, Grubb evidently had started doing business with the colleges, because animosity towards him during the Bread Riots arose from the fact that he sold his bread more cheaply to the colleges than to the public. He had a baker's shop at 16 St Clement's as well as at 22 Queen Street.
In 1871 Grubb still lived on the Banbury Road with his wife, and in addition to Sarah Bateman, another niece, Alice M. Bateman, aged 14, was living with them.
By the time of the 1881 census, Grubb was a widower of 73. Described as a retired corn merchant, he was living at 37 Beaumont Street with three servants: a cook, a servant, and a coachman.
An advertisement dated 7 September 1887 shows that Grubb's business, taken overby R. J. Grubb, was then based at 16 St Clements, 15 St Aldate's, and the Castle Mills in addition to 22 Queen Street, and that as well as selling bread it was the "best establishment in Oxford for poultry and horse food", with crushed corn for horses that was "unequalled in Oxford or elsewhere.
Above is Isaac Grubb's engraved bill-heading. On the left is the motto "Never Despair", with an eye drawn above it, and below it is a beehive with a second motto reading "Nothing without labour". The rest of the bill heading reads:
No. 22 Queen Street, Oxford, 18–
Bought of I. Grubb
Baker and Corn Dealer
Flour meal mart, hops, hay, straw,
bird seed, &c.
For ready money only
On the same page of the book is a handbill issued by Isaac Grubb's descendant, R.J. Grubb, in 1887.
See also:
- Jackson's Oxford Journal, 28 March 1885, p. 5c
- Oxford Mail, 4 November 1983, p. 5 and 31 January 1984 about the possibility of naming a street after him
- Michael L. Turner and Dsvid Vaisey, Oxford Shops and Shopping. A Pictorial Survey from Victorian & Edwardian Times (Oxford: B. H. Blackwell, 1972), page 27 for a comparison of the engraved bill-heading of Isaac Grubb with the jobbing printing of the hand-bill issued by R. J. Grubb in 1887
- 1841 Census: Oxford (St Peter le Bailey), 181/15
- 1851 Census: Oxford (St Peter-le-Bailey), 1728/482
- 1861 Census: Oxford (St Giles), 894/101
- 1871 Census: Oxford (Summertown), 1436/4
- 1881 census: Oxford (St Mary Magdalen), 1502/16