Locks and keys have had a strange fascination for many people through long ages. In some form or other they have been used almost from the earliest days of mankind; and the history of their gradual development forms a fascinating study.


Mr. Charles Chubb, founder of the firm. Born in 1772, died in 1846.

 The story of the 100 years of Chubb's lock which was patented by Jeremiah Chubb on February 3rd, 1818, cannot be properly told without recalling some facts relating to the growth, from old times, of methods adopted by our ancestors for securing their own property and sometimes the property of others.

The improvement in locks claimed by Jeremiah Chubb in the specification of the original Chubb patent, was the introduction of a detecting mechanism, the detector consisting of a lever moving on a fixed centre pin, and so placed as to be operated on by the tumblers or levers of the lock.

When the levers are raised to their correct height by the use of the proper key supplied with the lock, the bolt is duly thrown and the lock secured.

But if any attempt is made, either carelessly or by design, to open the lock by means of any but its correct key, the levers are lifted above or below their assigned height; the detector then comes into action and effectually stops the motion of the bolt, detecting the lock and rendering it temporarily useless.
To quote the words of Mr. Chubb's specification: " In this state the lock is what I call detected, and the possessor of the true key has evidence that an attempt has been made to violate the lock, because the true key will not now open it, for neither the true key nor tumblers have any means of communication with the detector after it has passed the point of detection."


The Chubb Detector Lock.

The owner, however, is able to overcome this state of things by the use of a regulating key provided by the maker, which restores the lock to such a state of adjustment that the original key will open it.

By the subsequent improvements devised and patented in 1824 by Jeremiah Chubb's brother Charles, this special adjusting key was rendered superfluous by a device which allowed of the key by which the lock was actuated, being also capable of counteracting the "detection"; and, with modifications, this principle introduced by Charles Chubb survives today.

The number of lock patents granted to Chubb's since 1824 is very large, many of the improvements being of considerable technical interest, but such details are out of the scope of this work.
The original Wolverhampton lock works of Messrs. Chubb and Son, used by them up to about 1840.


Chubb's present Wolverhampton Lock Works, opened in 1899.

Small Beginnings

The first Chubb locks were made in a small workshop in Portsea, Hampshire, but their manufacture was quickly transferred to the great lock making centre of Wolverhampton, with which locality the house of Chubb has since been so prominently associated. Our illustrations of the original and the present Chubb Lock Works offer convincing indication of the expansion of the business.


Mr. and Mrs. Charles Chubb.
The connection of Wolverhampton with the lock industry is an ancient one, and in an introduction to "Abridgments of Lock Patent Specifications" published in 1873 we read: "The manufacture of locks was introduced into South Staffordshire as early as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but it did not flourish as one of the chief staple industries of the district until the end of the seventeenth century.

Dr. Plott, writing A.D. 1686, says of Wolverhampton: 'The greatest excellency of the blacksmith's profession in this country lies in their making of locks for doors, wherein the artisans of Wolverhampton seem to be preferred to all others, making them in suites, six, eight, or more in a suite, according as the chapman bespeaks them, whereof the keys shall neither of them open the other's lock, yet one master key shall open them all.'" This system of suiting locks remains, with certain modifications, at the present time.

Founders of the Firm

Mr. Charles Chubb, who was born at Fordingbridge, Hampshire, in 1773, was associated during the early years of the last century with his brother Jeremiah Chubb in business at Portsmouth as a ship's outfitter and ironmonger. Both brothers necessarily were acquainted with hardware, and no doubt frequently dealt with the common locks of the period.


Mr. John Chubb, son of Charles Chubb. Born in 1815, died in 1872.

 In the year 1817 a serious robbery, accomplished by the aid of false keys, took place in the Portsmouth dockyard, and a reward of £100 was offered by the Government for a lock which could not be opened by any other than its own key.

It is recorded that a convict on board one of the prison ships at Portsmouth dockyard, who was by profession a lock maker, and who had been employed in London in making and repairing locks for several years, and subsequently had been notorious for picking locks, asserted that he had picked with ease some of the best locks, and that he could pick Chubb's locks with equal facility.

One of the latter was secured by the seals of the late Sir George Grey, the Commissioner, and some of the principal officers of the dockyard, and given to the convict, together with files, and all the tools he stated to be necessary for preparing false instruments for the purpose; as also blank keys to fit the pin of the lock; and a lock exactly the same in principle, so that he might examine it and make himself master of its construction.
Promises of a reward of £100 from Mr. Chubb, and of a free pardon were also made to him in the event of his success.

After trying for two or three months to pick the sealed lock, during which time, by his repeated efforts, he repeatedly overlifted the detector, which was as often undetected or readjusted for his subsequent trials, he gave up the attempt, saying that Chubb's were the most secure locks he had ever met with, and that it was impossible for any man to pick, or to open them, with false instruments.

Chubb's Detector Lock

No record can be found of the number of other ideas submitted in the competition; but whatever their number or character, it was the detector lock patented February the 3rd, 1818, by Jeremiah Chubb, and greatly improved shortly afterwards by Charles Chubb, that gained the Government reward.
Sir George Hayter Chubb, Bt., JP. Son of the late John Chubb, chairman of the company.
We further learn that in order to ascertain the result of friction on Chubb's detector lock, one of them was subjected to the alternate rectilinear motion of a steam engine in the Portsmouth dockyard, and was locked and unlocked upwards of four hundred and sixty thousand times consecutively without any appreciable wear being indicated by a gauge applied to the levers and the key, both before and after this alternate action.


Mr. Charles Archibald Chubb. Managing Director.

This Chubb lock at once gained the public approval; and after starting lockworks in a small way at Wolverhampton, Charles Chubb soon disposed of his hardware business at Portsmouth and moved to 57 St. Paul's Churchyard, London, E.C., confining his trade there to the selling of his patent locks.

Safes, strong rooms and safe deposits were subsequently added, and since the removal to 128 Queen Victoria Street in 1877: this latter branch of the business has grown to large dimensions.

Later on Mr. Charles Chubb's youngest son, John, became associated with him in business, and a small factory for the manufacture of safes was opened in Smithfield, London.

Mr. Charles Chubb died in 1846, and for some years his son, Mr. John Chubb, was the sole owner of the business, until in 1863, his son John Charles worked with him, and in 1865 his second son, George Hayter, now the chairman of the Company, joined them in the conduct of the business.
In 1866 a new safe factory was built in Glengall Road, Old Kent Road, London, S.E. By the death of Mr. John Chubb in 1872, his two sons were at a comparatively early age, left in the management of the business.

In the year 1882 the business was purchased from the late Mr. John Chubb's trustees and formed into a Limited Company under the chairmanship of Mr. George Hayter Chubb, who had associated with him as directors, his brothers, Mr. John Charles Chubb and Mr. Harry Withers Chubb, together with Mr. James E. Vanner and Mr. Alexander McArthur, MP.

The four last-named directors having passed away, they were succeeded by Mr. Charles Archibald Chubb and Major George Herbert Chubb, R.A., sons of Sir George Hayter Chubb, who was made a Knight Bachelor in 1885 and created a Baronet in 1900.

Mr. John Edward Chubb, son of the late Mr. John Charles Chubb; and Major Harry Emory Chubb, son of the late Mr. Harry Withers Chubb.

The other seats on the Board being filled by Alderman Sir George Wyatt Truscott, Bart., and Sir Henry Holloway. Recently the directorate has been further extended by the election of Mr. Harold Gabriel Morrish.
Major George Herbert Chubb, RA. Director of Chubb's and Managing Director of Chubb and Maxwell Limited, and Chubb's Australian Company Limited.

Australia and South Africa

In 1894 a company was formed to deal specially with Chubb's export business with South Africa, under the style of Chubb and Maxwell, Ltd., being locally directed by the late Mr. Robert George Maxwell, and in 1896 a further subsidiary company was founded for Australian business, called Chubb's Australian Co., Ltd., under the management of the late Mr. Oswald H. M. Pain; both Companies having Major George Herbert Chubb as London Managing Director, and. Mr. H. G. Chalk, Secretary of the parent Company, as Secretary.

At the present time, owing to the deaths of the original managers, the local representation of the companies is in the hands of Mr. Ernest J. Hartley in South Africa and Mr. Christopher Langsworth in Australia.

Chubb's Indian interests in Bombay have been successively controlled in past years by Mr. Eduljee Pestonjee; Mr. Chas. E. Powell; Mr. David Laidlaw, who joined the Colours in 1916, and fell in his country's service in 1917; and latterly by Mr. J. Henshilwood.
 

Mr. J. Edward Chubb. Resident Managing Director at Wolverhampton.  

Major H. Emory Chubb. Managing Director.
 


Alderman Sir George Wyatt Truscott, Bt, JP. Company Director. Lord Mayor of London, 1908 to 1909.

New Premises

In 1908 Chubb's safe works situated in the south of London were sold, as at that time the desirability of concentrating all manufacturing operations under central control became increasingly apparent, and in addition to extensions for safe making being provided at the large Wolverhampton Lock Works, new and extensive buildings for the manufacture of safes, strong room doors, treasuries, strong rooms and safe deposits were erected on a ten-acre site at Wednesfield Road, near the Lock Works, the premises comprising erecting shops for steel construction on a large scale, machine shops, stores, offices, workers' canteens, and all other accommodation for meeting the present and anticipating the future needs of an expanding business.

The whole of the works were thus concentrated at Wolverhampton under the control of a resident managing director and works managers formerly connected with the London works.

Various considerations influenced the concentration of Chubb's Works at Wolverhampton. It is a great centre of the hardware and metal trades: it offered better and healthier housing facilities for the workers, having an excellent garden city in close proximity to the new works site: while rents and rates were lower than in London, a fact which weighed favourably with both employers and employed.

Many of the men were natives of the Staffordshire town, who had settled in London, and were, in many cases, not averse to returning to Wolverhampton. The wisdom of making Wolverhampton the manufacturing headquarters of the company has since been amply proved.

In a letter dated May 13th, 1818, written by Jeremiah Chubb shortly after his settlement at Wolverhampton, he said: "My lot will be fixed here, as I do not expect to be so useful anywhere as in the manufactory." During the intervening century an unbroken connection has existed between the descendants of the writer of those words and the now flourishing Midland town, in which the old Portsea trader commenced the manufacture of the wares with which the name of Chubb has so wide-world an association.

In 1909 the Corporation of Wolverhampton conferred the honour of the Freedom of the Borough upon Sir George Hayter Chubb. In tracing the connection of the successive members of the Chubb family with this old business, it may not be out of place to refer to the manner in which the good feeling existing between them and those serving them, whether in a managerial or in a less important position, has been demonstrated by gratifying length of service and other evidences of mutual goodwill. Mr. W. H. Chalk, formerly London manager and secretary to the company, who died in 1898, was in the service for fifty one years. He was succeeded by his son, Mr. H. G. Chalk, the present secretary of the Company.


Sir Henry Holloway, JP. Director.


Harold G. Morrish. Director.

Long Service

Mr. Ebenezer Hunter, manager at Wolverhampton, and a prominent Municipal Councillor, who retired in 1883 and died in 1898, had an active connection of fifty four years with the firm. Mr. H. R. Powell, who happily survives in good health at this date at the age of eighty five, held the position of cashier during a large part of his half century's service: and Mr. G. Gaskell Exton, manager, has been with the company some thirty five years. In certain cases the records of workmen are even more remarkable. William Chick, foreman locksmith at the London head office, served for sixty years before his retirement. John Parkes, who died at Wolverhampton in 1912 after enjoying a pension for ten years, had at the time of his retirement completed fifty nine years' work, while Harry Inscoe, whose portrait appears in Chapter 2 and who is still engaged on high class lock work, completes sixty one years' service this year (1919).
 
Return to
the contents		   Proceed to
Chapter 2