Edward Grubb (Quaker)

Grubb was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, educated at Bootham School,[https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-71530 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography] York and studied at the University of Leeds and University of London.{{cite web|title=Edward Grubb (1854-1939)|url=http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/g/r/grubb_e.htm|access-date=21 January 2012|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304122947/http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/g/r/grubb_e.htm|url-status=dead}} He began his career as a teacher when he returned to Bootham School{{cite book|title=Bootham School Register|editor1-last=Woodland|editor1-first=Jenny|place=York, England|publisher=Bootham Old Scholars Association|year=2011|oclc=844773709}} in York, England. Bootham is a boarding school for boys of the Religious Society of Friends. Grubb had attended the school himself, beginning in 1868 at the age of fourteen.{{cite book |title= The Life of Edward Grubb: 1854-1939: A Spiritual Pilgrimage|last= Dudley|first= James|year= 1946|publisher= James Clark & Co.|location= London|pages= 30, 38}} He would later move on to teach at a number of other schools, including other Quaker schools. He received his B.A. in 1876 and in 1877 married Emma M. Horsnail of Bulford Mill, who he had courted for seven years.{{cite book |title= The Life of Edward Grubb: 1854-1939: A Spiritual Pilgrimage|last= Dudley|first= James|year= 1946|publisher= James Clark & Co.|location= London|pages= 41–43}}

While preparing for his M.A. examination in 1879, he had a crisis of faith resulting from his inability to reconcile science with the religious beliefs he had grown up with. He initially found it impossible to see how any serious intellectual could also be religious. He did not find any satisfaction in agnosticism; however, and remained open to a solution to his intellectual problems that included belief in God.{{cite book |title= The Life of Edward Grubb: 1854-1939: A Spiritual Pilgrimage|last= Dudley|first= James|year= 1946|publisher= James Clark & Co.|location= London|pages= 44, 48}} In the 1880s Grubb began to develop an interest in social concerns, even cutting back on his teaching in order to devote time to the study of economics and to public work.{{cite book |title= The Life of Edward Grubb: 1854-1939: A Spiritual Pilgrimage|last= Dudley|first= James|year= 1946|publisher= James Clark & Co.|location= London|page= 54}} In keeping with his desire to reconcile faith with science, Grubb was among those who vocally and successfully opposed the adoption of the Richmond Declaration by London Yearly Meeting in 1888.{{cite book |title= The Life of Edward Grubb: 1854-1939: A Spiritual Pilgrimage|last= Dudley|first= James|year= 1946|publisher= James Clark & Co.|location= London|pages= 56–58}} Soon after, as a result of his regular participation in meeting for worship, Grubb was officially recorded as a minister in the Religious Society of Friends. At the time, he still did not feel he had a firm basis for his faith, but was confident that it would come with time.{{cite book |title= The Life of Edward Grubb: 1854-1939: A Spiritual Pilgrimage|last= Dudley|first= James|year= 1946|publisher= James Clark & Co.|location= London|pages= 58–59}}

Grubb would go on to be a major leader of British Quakerism, a prolific religious author, and a key member of a number of religious and social organizations, including the No-Conscription Fellowship. Like most pacifists of his generation, his absolute pacifist stance was born from the disillusionment with the Boer War.{{cite journal|last=Kennedy|first=Thomas C.|title=The Quaker Renaissance and the Origins of the Modern British Peace Movement, 1895-1920|journal=Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies|date=Autumn 1984|volume=16|issue=3|pages=243–272|doi=10.2307/4048756|jstor=4048756}} From 1901 to 1906 he was secretary of the Howard Association. As secretary, in 1904 he visited Washington D.C. and met President Theodore Roosevelt, of which he said:

The whole interview cannot have lasted two minutes. I am very glad to have had it, and to see how entirely simple and unconventional American democracy is. It was impossible to feel nervous – everything was so wholly plain and ordinary.{{Cite web |title=The Howard League {{!}} Treasures from the Howard League Collection |url=https://howardleague.org/treasures-from-the-howard-league-collection/ |access-date=2024-01-27 |website=The Howard League |language=en}}

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography records that Grubb was buried on 26 January 1939 at the Hitchin Quaker burial ground. However, the Hertford & Hitchin Monthly Meeting minutes of 4 February 1939{{citation |title=Hertford & Hitchin Monthly Meeting Minutes, 1939-1945|location=Herts Archives & Local Studies, Hertford}} state quite clearly: "He was cremated at Golders Green 27th 1. 39., the death having been registered at Letchworth 25th 1st mo. 1939".

• List of peace activists

• Social Aspects of the Quaker Faith (London: Headley Brothers, 1899).
• Quakerism in England: Its Present Position (London: Headley Brothers, 1901).
• Authority and the Light Within (Philadelphia: J.C. Winston, 1908).
• The Silence of God (London: Headley Brothers, 1909).
• Notes on the Life and Teaching of Jesus (London: James Clark & Co.; Headley Brothers, 1910).
• The Personality of God and Other Essays in Constructive Christian Thought (London: Headley Brothers, 1911).
• The True Way Of Life (London: Headley Brothers, 1915).
• What is Quakerism?: An Exposition of the Leading Principles and Practices of the Society of Friends, as Based on the Experience of "the Inward Light" (London: Swarthmore, 1917).
• Christ in Christian thought: Notes on the Development of the Doctrine of Christ's Person (London: James Clark, 1919).
• The Bible; Its Nature and Inspiration (London: Swarthmore, 1920).
• The Meaning of the Cross: A Story of the Atonement (London: Allen and Unwin, 1922).
• Authority in Religion (New York: MacMillan, 1924).
• Quaker Thought and History: A Volume of Essays (New York: MacMillan, 1925).
• Christianity as Life (London: Swarthmore, 1927).
• The Nature of Christianity (London: Swarthmore, 1927).
• Christianity as Truth (London: Swarthmore, 1928).
• The Worth of Prayer: And Other Essays (London: James Clark, 1930).
• Thoughts on the Divine in Man (London: Friends Book Centre, 1931).

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Category:English Quakers

Category:English pacifists

Category:English Christian pacifists

Category:People from Sudbury, Suffolk

Category:1854 births

Category:1939 deaths

Category:People educated at Bootham School

Category:Alumni of the University of Leeds