Youngest son of Samuel Grubb (1750-1815) and Margaret Shackleton (d. 1829). Boat-builder, iron, oils, and colour merchant, of the Quay, Clonmel and Richmond Mills, Clonmel (which he built in 1830). He added an "E" to his surname, and a second christian name, Samuel. The cleverest of the family, he married, 1819, Elizabeth Haughton, his sister-in-law, second daughter of John Barcroft Hauhgton, Esq., of Cleave Court, Co. York. They lived at Parson's Green, Clogheen, for some years before moving back to Clonmel. She died in 1849, aged 45. He died aged 91. His large home, Quay Houe, Clonmel, is turned into solictors' and doctors' offices. Thirteen children, seven sons and six daughters.
He devoted his life to make the River Suir navigable for barges and boats from the sea at Waterford up to Clogheen and Cahir. Brought up to work in his father's mills at Clogheen he had quickly realised the difficulties of transport and export from the Golden Vale of Tipperary. His marriage in 1819 (the same year as that of his brother Samuel) to Elizabeth Haughton, the younger sister of the wife of his brother Richard, gave him an equally liberal endowment. While his brothers Richard and Samuel occupied their lives in the purchase nd building up of large estates at Cahir Abbey and Castle Grace, he invested his monoey in the purchase of a large frontage of the Quay at Clonmel, where he built up a flourishing river transport export and import trade. He placed the eldest of his seven sons, Samuel Thomas on his majority in charge of teh Waterford end of his rapidly epanding river-transport business, and his third son Thomas Cambridge in charge at the Cahir end. For his second son John Barcroft, knowledgeable on roses, and with his "gren fingers" quite expert on plants and gardens, he built a great expanse of glass houses on land he bought near the old gaol, and gave him charge of the horticultural side of his business. The four younger sons were fully occupied in boat-building, river conservation, drainage, and the mechanical side of the Grubb business. With their 12 cousins at Cahir, and inine at Castle Grace and Chassleigh, it became well known that on occasions as many as 60 Grubbs could find he time to turn out for a day's hunting in the surrounding districts. The family of Thomas Grubbe was:
(1) SAMUEL THOMAS GRUBBE, b. 1821; m. 1845, Eliza, only child of Rev. Alexander Alcock, T.C.D., d. 1863. He became J.P. for Counties Kilkeny and Waterford; High Sheriff of Waterford, 1863. With other issue, his eldest son was Thomas Alcock Grubb, of Waterford, whose descendants are still living in Waterford today.
(2) JOHN BARCROFT GRUBB, b. 1823. Owned horticultural gardens near the gaol.
(3) THOMAS CAMBRIDGE GRUBB, b. 1824, of Goose Island, Clonmel. His young wife Mary was buried in Cahir Church in 1851, aged 27.
(4) ABRAHAM GRUBBE, b. 1828.
(5) RICHARD GRUBBE, b. 1828
(6) ALBERT GRUBBE, b. 1828
(7) EDWIN GRUBBE, b. 1835
(1) Sara Haughton, b. 1820
(2) Margaret Butler, b. 1827; m. 1851 her first cousin, Richard Davis Grubb, of Castle Grace, Clogheen. Two children. She died 1855 in childbirth.
(3) Susan, b. 1832.
(4) Elizabeth, b. 1833.
(5) Eliza Emma, b. 1837; d. 1838.
(6) Eliza Haughton, b. 1839.
