This interesting surname, with variant spellings Grob, Grube, Grubbe etc., derives from the Old German "grube", a mine, pit, hollow or cavity, from the Old High German verb "grubilon", to dig, related to the Middle Dutch "grobben", to scrape, and was originally given as an occupational name to a worker in a mine. In his work "landed Gentry", Burke States that, the family of Grubbe, spelt in the old registers Grube or Groube, migrated from Germany about the year 1430, after the Hussite persecutions", however, the surname is on record in England from the late 12th Century, (see below), suggesting a much earlier initial date of entry. One, Johannes Grubb was noted in the 1379 "Poll Tax Returns of Yorkshire". The surname is particularly well recorded in church registers of South West England from the late 16th Century. In 1581, the birth of one, Thomas Grubb is recorded in Devizes, Wiltshire, and on February 18th 1582, Henry Grubb, an infant was christened in Stoke Climsland, Cornwall. The name was introduced into the Irish Counties of Waterford and Tipperary in the mid 17th Century by an English family who settled there. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Grubbe, which was dated 1176, in the "Pipe Rolls of Berkshire", during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.