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". His obituary in the Dublin Evening Post read, "The worthy and the good will regret him because his life has been useful and benevolent and virtuous." Upon his death, Guinness's estate was valued at £23,000. In his will, Guinness left Beaumont and his investment properties to Hosea, while the younger Arthur had already inherited his brewery. Benjamin and William were given £1,500 apiece, while Elizabeth received £1,000. As Guinness's other daughters were unmarried at the time of his death, they each received £2,000 to cover a dowry. Finally, his widow was afforded Guinness's Gardiner Street house, carriage, and a fixed income of £200 annually. Legacy Guinness beer remains popular worldwide, having generated £12.2 billion in net sales for the 2018 fiscal year. In 1997, Guinness PLC merged with Grand Metropolitan to form the beverage conglomerate Diageo. 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. In May 2008, Diageo announced that it would close the Guinness breweries in Kilkenny and Dundalk, as well as half of the St. James's Gate brewery, but that it would retain the Storehouse and would renovate the remainder of the Dublin brewery. In 2009, for the 250th anniversary of Guinness beer, the company established the Arthur Guinness Fund, which awards funds and mentoring to businesses invested in social reform. Diageo declared 24 September 2009 "Arthur's Day", meant to be a worldwide celebration of Guinness's life and legacy. As part of the celebrations, An Post released a commemorative postage stamp for the brewer, as they had also done in 1959 for the brewery's 200th anniversary. Diageo promoted annual Arthur's Days for five years before cancelling the celebrations in 2014. 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. The year prior, tangentially to Arthur's Day, a statue of Guinness was erected in Celbridge. See also Arthur's Day Guinness family List of people on stamps of Ireland Richard Hennessy References Bibliography External links The History