George William was born in Faversham, Kent and died in Chester, Cheshire. He married Fanny WRAGGE in 1864 in Great Boughton, Cheshire. Fanny was born 1831 Preston, Lancashire and died 1913 in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales whilst visiting her son George, who was working and living there.
George William and Fanny had two sons George and Alfred.
He started off in Faversham with his parents & siblings and by 1851 he was living in the High Street in Dorking, Surrey with Isaac Churchyard, a Chemist, & his family. George was a shopman & probably learning his trade. By 1861 he is in Chester, still single, but a Chemist & Druggist with a servant living in. He marries in 1864 and is still in Chester in 1871 & by now has two children and a live in servant. By 1881 his business is expanding as he is employing 1 assistant and 2 boys whilst still having a live in servant. There have been no further additions to the family but he has a Chemist Assistant now lodging with them. In 1891 his youngest son Alfred is still living with them & is a Pharmaceutical Chemist and presumably helping in the business, which must be good as he now also has two assistants, also lodging with them. They have two nieces staying too - occupation - students; perhaps these two girls are helping out in the shop too? There is still a live in servant, no doubt desperately needed with all these extra people in the household! Sadly he dies in 1893.
“Resident in Chester from 1853 until his death, Shrubsole was a geologist and archaeologist with many interests, but made a special study of the Palaeozoic Polyzoa, and collected an important series of these fossils, notably from the Bala and Carboniferous Limestones of North Wales, the Wenlock Limestone of Dudley, and Magnesian Limestone of Northumberland. He published several papers on the subject, and his collection was presented to the British Museum by his son, Mr. George Shrubsole, in 1896. Many Ordovician fossils from the Glyn Ceiriog district were presented by him to the museum of the Chester Society of Natural Science, of which he was a founder.”
Obituary in Cambridge journals:
GEORGE WILLIAM SHRUBSOLE.
Born 1827. Died July 22, 1893.
Chester has lost a valued citizen, and Science an enthusiastic worker, in the person of Mr. G. W. Shrubsole, F.G.S., the geologist and antiquary. He belonged to the Kentish family of the same name, being a brother of the well-known geologists, Messrs. W. H. and O. A. Shrubsole, and settled in Chester some forty years ago. Commencing as a chemist's assistant, in the course of a few years he started a business of his own in Market Square, which is now in the hands of his two sons.
In addition to his retail trade, he had a considerable connection as an analytical chemist among mine owners in North Wales. He was Honorary Curator to the Grosvenor Museum, a member of the Chester Archaeological Society, and a painstaking student of the antiquities of his own city. Mr. Shrubsole was one of the founders, with Charles Kingsley, of the Chester Society of Natural Science, and held the office of Chairman of the Geological Section for some years.
He contributed' numerous papers on local matters to the Chester societies, and published a handbook to Chester antiquities on the occasion of the visit of the British Archaeological Association.
In 1879 and 1880 he contributed papers on the Carboniferous Polyzoa to the Quarterly Journal of t the Geological Society of London, and in 1883 was awarded the Kingsley Medal of the Chester Society of Natural Science in recognition of the value of his researches.
