Arthur Guinness ( 172523 January 1803) was an Irish brewer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. The inventor of Guinness beer, he founded the Guinness Brewery at St. James's Gate in 1759. Guinness was born in Celbridge, County Kildare around 1725. His father was employed by Arthur Price, a vicar 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 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. Early life 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 Ginnies. 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