Arthur Guinness (c. 24 September 1725 – 23 January 1803) was an Irish brewer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. The inventor of Guinness stout, he founded the Guinness Brewery at St. James's Gate in 1759.
Guinness was born in Clonoughlis, Celbridge, County Kildare, in 1725. His father was employed by Arthur Price, a bishop of the Church of Ireland. Guinness himself was later employed by Price, and upon his death in 1752, both he and his father were bequeathed funds from Price's will. Guinness then worked at his stepmother's public house before founding a brewery in Leixlip. In 1759, during a financial crisis that created an abundance of affordable property, Guinness moved to Dublin and purchased an abandoned brewery from the Rainsford family. It was originally an ale brewery, but Guinness began producing porter in 1778, and by 1799, production of ale ceased with the popularity of his darker beer.
Outside of his brewery, Guinness was socially and politically active. A devout Protestant, he founded the first Sunday school in Dublin in 1786 and frequently argued for his fellow gentry to set a strong moral example. He was largely supportive of Catholic rights in Ireland but opposed the Irish Rebellion of 1798. As a member of the Dublin Corporation of Brewers, Guinness was also instrumental in petitioning the Irish House of Commons to change the tax code surrounding the importation of beer. Guinness and his wife had ten children together, and upon Guinness's death in 1803, his son Arthur Guinness II inherited the brewery and all operations.
Many of the details of Arthur Guinness's life and heritage are unknown or disputed by historians, either because insufficient written information exists or due to the proliferation of rumours by his contemporaries. During his life, Guinness believed that he was descended from the Magennises of Iveagh. While the Viscount Magennis, a Gaelic Catholic noble and supporter of James II of England, had fled Ireland for France after the Battle of the Boyne, he left behind a portion of the clan who converted to Protestantism and changed their name to Gennis. DNA testing run by Trinity College Dublin, however, suggests that Guinness's ancestors were actually another County Down family, the McCartans, who lived in a village called Guiness outside Ballynahinch. Similarly, little is known about Guinness's father, but most historical records place his date of birth around 1690 in County Kildare. A popular rumour in Guinness's day was that his father Richard was the illegitimate son of a couple who had fled Ireland after the Battle of the Boyne, leaving their young child at an orphanage in Leixlip. By contrast, Guinness's mother, Elizabeth Read, is known to be the daughter of a land owner in Clonoughlis, also in County Kildare.
Richard Guinness and Elizabeth Read married in the early 1720s, possibly in the parish church at Oughter Ard. While rumours at the time suggested that the couple had eloped while Guinness was working for Read's parents as a groom on their estate at Clonoughlis, this is historically unlikely, as the vicar would likely have refused to marry a couple without obtaining the bride's parents' permission. By 1722, Richard Guinness was in the employ of Arthur Price, a vicar in Celbridge.
Arthur Guinness was the first of five children born to Richard and Elizabeth. Likely born on his mother’s family estate Clonoughlis. Arthur was named for the vicar Arthur Price, who also served as his godfather. Guinness's exact date of birth is disputed by historians: while many sources suggest that he was born on 24 September 1725, the Guinness Company formally declared in 1991 that their founder's date of birth was on 28 September. His gravestone, meanwhile, states that he was 78 years old upon his death in January 1803, making it possible that he was born in 1724 rather than 1725.
In August 1742, Guinness's mother died at the age of 44, when her oldest son was 18. That same year, he followed his father into work for Price as a registrar. The occupation would have required Guinness to be literate, versed in arithmetic, and capable of writing, all opportunities that were rare for non-nobles. In 1744, Price was appointed Archbishop of Cashel, one of the most prestigious positions afforded to a clergyman in the Church of Ireland, and which came with a substantial pay raise that would have also extended to his staff. The Guinnesses remained in Price's employ until his death on 17 July 1752. Upon his death, he bequeathed his estate, valued at IR£8,850, to several relatives and employees, and both Guinness and his father received £100 apiece. On 19 October 1752, Richard Guinness married his second wife, Elizabeth Clare. Herself a widow, Clare had taken over the White Hart Inn upon her first husband's death, and Richard and his children worked at the public house after the wedding. Working for his stepmother was likely one of several places where Guinness learned how to brew.
Beer was of such great importance to Irish life in Guinness's time that, in addition to the many breweries on the island, homebrewing was popular among matriarchs, pub owners, and estate managers, and several members of Guinness's family engaged in the process. His maternal grandfather, William Read, had applied for a licence to sell ale in 1690, which he likely brewed himself and sold at a stall on the Dublin–Cork road. Working as a manager for Reverend Price's estate, Richard Guinness had a litany of his own responsibilities, most of which involved housekeeping and managing Price's funds. While it is frequently believed that Guinness had a hand in managing Price's brewery, this is unlikely, as the malt house in Oakley Park was listed as Jasper Carbery's property. This brewery was well known in Kildare for its porter, which had become a popular drink in the United Kingdom during Guinness's childhood.
Guinness purchased his first brewery in Leixlip in 1755. This first brewery, which he acquired in September, was a three-story building that ran from the street to the River Liffey. The river provided him with easy access to water for brewing and for power, while barley was grown in neighbouring farms. Hops, meanwhile, could be easily brought from Dublin, as Leixlip sat along the main Dublin–Galway road. The origin of Guinness's yeast is unknown, but is likely from Kildare and possibly originated from the White Hart Inn. In September 1756, Guinness signed several more Leixlip leases, including a property owned by American businessman George Bryan.
In 1759, Guinness moved to Dublin, leaving his Leixlip property in the care of his brother Richard. This move coincided with the Seven Years' War, which caused a number of economic upsets in Ireland, culminating in the collapse of several banks and a 1759 financial crisis that created an abundance of affordable property in Dublin. Guinness was interested in acquiring a brewery at St. James's Gate that had been abandoned nine years prior. The site was 4 acres (1.6 ha) and contained a brewhouse, a gristmill, two malt houses, and stables. The location was also economically advantageous, as Ireland was in the process of building its Grand Canal, which was intended to terminate just outside of St. James's Gate. Guinness leased the site from the Rainsford family on 31 December 1759. Under the agreement, he made a £100 downpayment and agreed to pay an additional £45 annually for 9,000 years.
One major conflict that dominated Guinness's early brewery career involved the terms of his lease as they related to water usage. The brewery's first owner, Giles Mee, had signed two separate leases with the Dublin Corporation: one for the property and one for the use of water. When the brewery fell into disuse in 1750, the water lease was forgotten. By 1773, the corporation had become angry with Guinness, claiming that his brewery was using more water than was afforded by his lease, while Guinness rebutted that the terms of the lease afforded him water "free of tax or pipe money". In April 1775, the corporation, who discovered that Guinness had made a number of alterations to his pipe system in order to draw more water onto his property, elected to physically cut off his supply. Guinness, in return, confronted the corporation with a pickaxe and threatened to dig his own channel. The properties agreed to settle the matter in court, and in 1785, Guinness agreed to lease his water from the City of Dublin for an annual charge of £10.