The founder of the Guinness brewing empire was born in Celbridge, a town on the River Liffey in County Kildare, Ireland, on September 24, 1725. He has been variously described as an entrepreneur, visionary, and philanthropist. His father was Richard Guinness, who was land steward for Arthur Price, young Arthur’s godfather and the vicar of Celbridge. In 1722 Price purchased the small, local Kildrought Brewery and placed Richard in charge of production. Arthur Price became Church of Ireland Archbishop of Cashel in 1744 until his death in 1752, and, in his will, he bequeathed Arthur Guinness (then aged 27) the sum of £100. It was specified that this should be used to expand the brewery.

Accordingly, in 1755, Arthur leased a brewery at Leixlip, a village southwest of Dublin at the confluence of the Liffey and the River Rye. Here, he brewed ale successfully for five years, before leaving his younger brother in charge and setting off for greater things in Dublin. In that city, on December 31, 1759, Arthur managed to secure a 9,000-year lease (at £45 per annum) on a four-acre brewery site at St. James’s Gate. In 1761 he married Olivia Whitmore in St. Mary’s Church, Dublin, and they had 21 children, 10 of whom reached adulthood. From 1764 they lived at the magnificent Beaumont House in the north of the city, which Arthur had built.

Initially, ale was brewed at St. James’s Gate, and the first export consignment consisted of a few barrels shipped to England in May 1769. By 1767 Guinness was the Master of the Dublin Corporation of Brewers and by the time of his death in 1803, the brewery was producing over 30,000 hectoliters of porter per year.

See also arthur guinness & sons.