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.

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.

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.

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.

[2] 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.

[5] 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.

[16][17] In 1744, Price was appointed Archbishop of Cashel, one of the most prestigious positions afforded to a clergyman in the Church of Ireland,[18] and which came with a substantial pay raise that would have also extended to his staff.

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.

[30] 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.

[35] One major conflict that dominated Guinness's early brewery career involved the terms of his lease as they related to water usage.

[37] 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.

His concept of a "West India Porter", which utilised a greater hops and alcohol content to survive long overseas travel to the Caribbean, later became the basis for Guinness Foreign Extra Stout.

[46] As a prominent figure within the Dublin brewery scene, as well as a member of the gentry following his marriage to Olivia Whitmore, Guinness became an agent for political change on behalf of Irish brewers.

He served first as warden and later as master of the Dublin Corporation of Brewers, a position through which he would frequently argue on behalf of the brewing industry to the Irish Parliament.

[48] Four years later and amidst a greater crisis in British taxation policies caused by the American Revolutionary War, the House of Commons formally changed the tax code to no longer subsidise the Irish importation of English porter.

These four daughters and six sons were named, from oldest to youngest, Elizabeth, Hosea, Arthur, Edward, Olivia, Benjamin, Louisa, John Grattan, William Lunell, and Mary Anne.

[65] During his tenure, the Knot was involved with the Irish Volunteers, a patriotic militia group dedicated to defending Ireland from potential French invaders.

[70] Guinness's opposition to the rebellion garnered the ire of Irish Catholics and nationalists, who subsequently referred to his beer as his "black Protestant porter".

[50] Although he never converted to Methodism during his life, instead remaining a member of the Church of Ireland,[72] his diaries indicate that his faith was influenced by that of John Wesley and the Methodist model of evangelical social work.

[74] Another religious inspiration for Guinness was Robert Raikes, who promoted Sunday school as a method of eliminating crime by introducing faith and morals early in life.

He believed that the duty of the wealthy and powerful was to set a strong moral example for their citizenry and looked unfavourably at what he viewed as displays of excess.

[76][77] He once protested the traditional feast of a new alderman, worried that the occasion would lead to drunken impropriety,[76] and instead suggested that the money set aside for the banquet be donated to The King's Hospital.

[74] Despite his generally temperate positions, Guinness never ventured into the teetotalism movement, instead joining the belief of his fellow brewers that drunkenness was attributed to liquor, not to beer.

[83] Upon his death, his funeral bier, which was adorned with the family crest of the Magennises,[84] carried his remains from the house to the parish church of Oughter Ard in County Kildare, and he was buried beside his mother.

[86] The inscription on his gravestone reads, "In the adjoining Vault are deposited the mortal remains of Arthur Guinness late of James's Gate in the city and of Beaumont in the County of Dublin Esquire who departed his life on the 23rd of January 1803 aged 78 years".

[90] In addition to producing beer, part of the St. James's Gate brewery has been renovated into the Guinness Storehouse, a heritage centre and tourist attraction which opened in 2000.

[97] Shortly after the festival was cancelled, the Kildare tourism department announced "Arthur's Way", a heritage trail connecting several locations in Dublin that were important to Guinness, including Celbridge, Leixlip, and Oughter Ard.