Background
He was son of Philip Stubbs, citizen and vintner of London, and was born on 2 October 1665, during the Great Plague of London, in the parish of Street Andrew Undershaft.
He was son of Philip Stubbs, citizen and vintner of London, and was born on 2 October 1665, during the Great Plague of London, in the parish of Street Andrew Undershaft.
He was educated from 1678 to 1682 at Merchant Taylors" School, and went as a commoner to Wadham College, Oxford, on 23 March 1683. In the following year he was elected scholar of the college, graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1686, Master of Arts
In 1689, became fellow in 1691, and proceeded Bachelor of Divinity in 1722. On taking holy orders he was appointed curate in the united parishes of Street Benet Gracechurch and Street Leonard Eastcheap. He was then chaplain successively to Robert Grove, bishop of Chichester, and to George Hastings, 8th Earl of Huntingdon.
From 1694 to 1699 he was rector of Woolwich, and was chosen first chaplain of Greenwich Hospital, an office which he held until his death.
On leaving Woolwich he was presented by the bishop of London to the rectory of Street Alphage London Wall, to which was added in 1705 the parish of Street James Garlickhithe. Stubbs was elected Fellow of the Royal Society on 30 November 1703, and was interested in literature and archæology.
Richard Steele, present one Sunday in Street James Garlickhithe when Stubbs was officiating, eulogised him in The Spectator. In 1715 Stubbs was preferred to the archdeaconry of Street Albans, and four years later the bishop of London collated him to the rectory of Launton, Oxfordshire.
He interested himself in the education of poorer children, and he was instrumental in founding day schools in the parishes of Street Alphage and Street James, as well as in Bicester, near Launton.
He died there on 13 September 1738, and was buried in the old burial-ground of the hospital, his tombstone being preserved in the mausoleum. Stubbs married, in 1696, Mary, daughter of John Willis, rector of West Horndon, Essex. The archdeacon"s only sister, Elizabeth, married Ambrose Bonwicke, the elder, the nonjuror and headmaster of Merchant Taylors" School.
Royal Society.