Ignatius Cooper Grubb

Ignatius Cooper Grubb
Assoc. Justice, Delaware Supreme Court; Chief Justice, Court of Appeals
In office c1884–c1897
Nominated by	Charles C. Stockley
Personal details
Spouse	none
Alma mater	Yale

Ignatius Cooper Grubb (April 12, 1841 - June 20, 1927) was an Associate Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals.

Ignatius was first a lawyer and active politician who became Secretary of State in 1874 and became involved in a boundary dispute with New Jersey that remained unresolved until 1935. He later became a prominent champion of the contentious legislative reapportionment issue, bringing it to the Delaware General Assembly. Representatives were apportioned by county rather than by population, which worked to the disadvantage of cities like Wilmington. His "Grubb Representation Amendment" was supported by Gov. Charles C. Stockley and passed by both houses in 1883, but was narrowly voted down by the new General Assembly in 1884. Then, probably as a political ploy, Gov. Stockley offered him the non-political Supreme Court position for life. Ignatius accepted. But he continued to call for a new constitutional convention, which was finally held in 1897. The convention did address the reapportionment issue, giving Wilmington additional representatives; but the new constitution also restructured the Supreme Court and thus terminated Ignatius' life tenure. He continued to serve in the judiciary and later practiced law, becoming the then-longest serving member of the bar in Delaware.

Personal life

Ignatius, a bachelor, was adventurous and the limited demands of his job encouraged him to become a world traveler. After a trip to Hawaii in 1895, he interceded at the request of the islands' president to help reduce key senatorial opposition to the annexation of Hawaii. In 1902, he made a trip on the first modern submarine, the Holland. During WWI, despite being in his 70's, he served in a gun crew on a British merchant ship. In 1919, he flew to Wilmington on an early seaplane.

Ignatius was the son of Wellington and Beulah (Allmond) Grubb, a Brandywine Hundred farmer who also owned land in Wilmington. The family was of the Delaware Grubb family founded by John and Frances Grubb. As part of his extensive travels, Ignatius became quite involved in family history and genealogy, and explored potential Grubb ancestral ties overseas. His work was viewed for years as a definitive history of the Delaware Grubb Family, although some of his key assertions have since been disproved. One of his enduring assertions was that Frances Grubb's maiden name was Vane, and that she was the daughter of Sir Henry Vane, the second governor of Massachusetts; But Henry Vane's daughter Frances was buried in Kent County, England, on June 4, 1683, while John's wife continued to bear children. Ignatius' impressive tomb at Old Swedes' Church has become a popular stop on the tours given at the famous church, as it declares his belief that the family was descended from a member of the English Parliament in 1571. Recent research has demonstrated the family descended from rather modest Cornwall ancestry.

External links

• Ignatius C. Grubb's Gravesite