Paul Espinasse and the Guinness Brewery

[John Falvey]

I found his email address quickly enough, but this as you've pointed out this story has done the rounds and I doubt that a journalist would be the original source.

[hallmark]

I'm puzzled by the official history of the Guinness Brewery and Paul Espinasse's role. 

Trouble is he had no role in it and was just an ordinary run of the mill Dublin brewer who died years before Guinness went near the place!!

[hallmark]

 Arthur Guinness acquired what was then a small, disused and ill-equipped brewery at St James's Gate.

 The lease, signed on 31 December 1759, was for a whopping 9,000 years at an annual rent of £45. The premises comprised of four acres with a copper, a kieve, a mill, two malthouses, stabling for twelve horses and a loft to hold 200 tons of hay.

On 1 December 1759, Arthur entered his signature, as a new brewer, in the Minute Book of the Dublin Brewers and Maltsters Corporation.

[Martyartie]

It was John Espinasse, Paul's son, who died from being thrown from his horse on the road to Drogheda, it happened on Sunday July 5 1750, and he died either through fracturing his skull (General Advertiser, Dublin, Friday July 17 1750, p2) or dislocating his neck (Belfast Newsletter, Monday July 13, 1750, p2. His name is given as John, not Jean Paul. Paul Espinasse had died some 10 years earlier: his will was proved in 1740.

Pro tip: if you go hunting for this sort of stuff in pre-1830s publications, search substituting f for s in the middle of words, eg Efpinaffe, horfe: those long s's cause chaos with OCR

[John Falvey]

Thanks Martyartie,

That's perfect. Next step is to work out what happened to John's children who were still minors when their mother Margaret died in 1757.

[hallmark]

All  Espinasse did was rent a Brewery that made Beer and died 10 years before Guinness went near the  small, disused and ill-equipped brewery at St James's Gate.....

Guinness then made Beer until he brought a Brewer from London to start brewing Guinness Porter rather than beer.


Other than being an old dead tenant, he had no role in Guinness Brewery!!

[John Falvey]

Sorry Hallmark,

I didn't read the bit in the Rootschat Terms & Condtions that said all threads had to be approved by you. I will endeavour to ask better questions in future, that is of couse subject to you finding information that couldn't be found in a simple google search.

[hallmark]

It avoids others trying to find "the connection" between  the Espinasse Family and Guinness family as there isn't any!!

[Martyartie]

If John Espinasse hadn't fallen off his horse and died, it's probable Arthur Guinness wouldn't have been able to lease St James's Gate, as Espinasse would still have been in possession of the brewery, and therefore any Guinness brewery in Dublin would have been developed somewhere else. That's a clear connection between the two, and I'm puzzled why you keep saying there's "no connection".