• History of Cemetery
• Location/Plans
• Notable people
• Grimsley gravestones
• News
• Burials A–Z
• Current Work
• Photographs
• Restoring a grave
• Contact/Search

Helena Marian STUBBS (1864–1868) and her infant brothers
Edward Geoffrey Henlock STUBBS (born & died 1867)
and Francis STUBBS (born & died 1871)
St Giles section: Row 25, Grave F42

.

This is the grave of three young children. At the time of their birth their father William Stubbs was Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and he later became Bishop of Oxford. For a full account of the career of their father, see the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or Wikipedia.

The burial of baby Francis Stubbs does not appear to be recorded on the grave, but he must also be buried here, as although he died in St Mary Magdalen parish, his burial is recorded in the register of St Giles’s parish.

Helena Marian Stubbs, Edward Geoffrey Henlock Stubbs, and Francis Stubbs were three young children of William Stubbs (born in Knaresborough, Yorkshire in 1825) and Catherine Dellar (born in Navestock, Essex in 1838), who were married in the Ongar district of Essex on 20 June 1859.

Their father was a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford and had held the college living of Navestock, Essex since 1850. At the time of the 1861 census William Stubbs was living in the vicarage there with his wife Catherine (22) and two servants. The birth of their first son William was registered in the first quarter of 1862, but he died shortly after birth. The elder of their two daughters, Katherine Isabella, was born in Ongar in 1863.

Helena Marian Stubbs, their second daughter, was born at Navestock on 6 October 1864, and her younger brother William Walter Stubbs was born there on 5 January 1866. Later In 1866 her father was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, a position he was to hold until 1884.

Hence the family moved to Oxford, and their next son Edward Geoffrey Henlock Stubbs was born at North Parade in 1867 (Henlock was the maiden name of his paternal grandmother.). He was baptised at Ss Philip & James’s Church on 5 September and died nine days later:

† Edward Geoffrey Henlock Stubbs died at North Parade at the age of five weeks on 14 September 1867 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 19 September (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).

His death notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal read: “Sept. 14, at Oxford, Edward Geoffrey Henlock, youngest child of the Rev. William Stubbs, Regius Professor of Modern History, aged five weeks.”

Helena died less than a year after her baby brother:

† Helena Marian Stubbs died at North Parade at the age of 3 years 10 months on 5 August 1868 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 7 August (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).

Her death notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal read: “Aug. 5, at Oxford, aged three years and ten months, Helena Marian, the second daughter of the Rev. William Stubbs, M.A., Regius Professor of Modern History.”

Their next son Lancelot Henlock Ascough Stubbs was born on 28 October 1869 at the south end of the Woodstock Road (then known as St Giles’s Road east), with his birth announced in Jackson’s Oxford Journal. He was baptised at Ss Philip & James’s Church on 24 November 1869.

By 1871 William and Catherine Stubbs had moved to Kettell Hall in Broad Street, and their next son Francis Stubbs was born there on 10 September that year, with his birth announced in Jackson’s Oxford Journal. He was baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 22 September 1871, but did not live long:

† Francis Stubbs died at Kettell Hall at the age of 11 weeks on 27 November 1871 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 1 December (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).

His death notice read: “Nov. 27, at Kettel [sic] Hall, Oxford, Francis, infant son of the Rev. W. Stubbs, M.A., Regius Professor of Modern History.”

Three more sons were born at Kettell Hall to Professor Stubbs and his wife and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church:

• Lawrence Morley Stubbs (born 23 March, bapt. 25 April 1874)
• Wilfrid Thomas Stubbs (born 29 July, bapt. 28 August 1875)
• Reginald Edward Stubbs (born 13 October, bapt. 15 November 1876).

---

The parents of the three children buried here

From 1875 to 1879 William Stubbs held the Oriel College living of Cholderton in Wiltshire: he stayed there during the long vacations, while a curate officiated at other times.

At the time of the 1881 census William and Catherine Stubbs spent census night at Kettell Hall in Broad Street with their youngest sons Lawrence (7), Alfred (5), and Reginald (4).

William Stubbs was appointed Bishop of Chester in 1884, and then Bishop of Oxford in 1888, and the 1891 census shows him and his wife living alone there in the Palace there with seven servants.

In 1901 their only surviving daughter Katherine Isabella (37) was living with them at the Palace and they were down to six servants: two footmen, a cook, two housemaids, a kitchenmaid, and a gardener.

William Stubbs died at Cuddesdon on 22 April 1901, and was buried in the churchyard there on 25 April.

His daughter Katharine Isabella Stubbs died at the age of 76 on 6 September 1939 and was buried in an adjoining grave.

Catherine Stubbs was living at 37 Morpeth Mansions in Westminster in 1911 with Katherine (47) and just one servant; five of her nine sons were also still alive. She was probably the Mrs Stubbs who was living at 9 Bardwell Road in Oxford in 1936. She died in Oxford on 19 August 1942 at the age of 103 and was buried at Cuddesdon in the same vault as her husband on 22 August.

Right: Vault of William Stubbs in Cuddesdon churchyard