Gubb meaning | Last name Gubb origin

Gubb is the variation of Gubbins. May be derived from the old Norman family name of Gobion; or more probably from the French gobin, a hunchback or ill-formed man. This name was borne by a singular tribe or horde of barbarians, who from the XV. to the XVII. century infested the borders of Dartmoor. Fuller, writing of them in 1662, says:-

"Hitherto have I met with none who could render a reason of their name. We call the shavings of fish which are little worth, gubbings; and sure it is they are sensible that the word importeth shame and dis grace. As for the suggestion of my worthy and learned friend, Mr. Joseph Maynard, borrowed from Buxtortius that such who did 'inhabitare montes gib berosos' were called Gubbings, such will smile at the ingenuity, who dissent froin the truth of the etymology.

"I have read of an England beyond Wales; but the Gubbings land is a Scythia within England, and they pure heathens therein. It lieth nigh Brent-Tor, on the edge of Dartmoor. It is reported that some two hundred years since, two strumpets being with child fled hither to hide themselves, to whom certain lewd fellows resorted, and this was their first original."

"They are a peculiar of their own making, exempt from bishop, archdeacon, and all authority, either ecclesiastical or civil. They live in cots (rather holes than houses) like swine, having all in common, multiplied without marriage into many hundreds. Their language is the dross of the dregs of the vulgar Devonian; and the more learned a man is, the worse he can understand them. During our civil wars, no soldiers were quartered amongst them for fear of being quartered amongst them. Their wealth consisteth in other men's goods, and they live by stealing the sheep on the moor; and vain it is for any to search their houses, being a work beneath the pains ofa sheriff and above the power of any constable. Such their fleetness, they will out run many horses; vivaciousness, they outlive most men, living in the ignorance of luxury, the extinguisher of life. They hold together like burrs; offend one, and all will revenge his quarrel.

"But now I am informed that they begin to be civilized, and tender their children to baptism and return to be men, yea, Christians again. I hope no civil people amongst us will turn barbarians, now these barbarians begin to be civilized."
Fuller's Worthies.