31st December 1759: Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000 year lease for St. James's Gate Brewery

Arthur Guinness was the son of the land steward to the Reverend Arthur Price, the Archbishop of Cashel. In 1755 he began brewing ale in Leixlip in County Kildare approximately 17 km north of Dublin. Four years later, at the age of 34, he negotiated with the descendants of Sir Mark Rainsford, the former Lord Mayor of Dublin, to rent the abandoned 4-acre site of the St. James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin at £45 per annum.

Much is often made of the lease lasting for an incredible 9,000 years. However long leases were reasonably common at the time to avoid full transfer of the freehold, since questions over land ownership posed serious political and social questions.

Having replaced the existing brewing equipment Arthur Guinness initially continued to produce ale at the new site, and within a decade had built a thriving export business shipping his beer to England. However, the business really began to flourish following the decision to begin brewing porter in 1778. Its popularity prompted Guinness to make the decision in 1799 to focus exclusively on darker beers. This set the business on the road to developing the signature stout with which the name is now most commonly associated.

Arthur Guinness died in 1803, by which time the brewery was producing over 20,000 barrels a year. The business then passed to his son, Arthur Guinness II, under whose control it continued to expand. In 1838 the St. James’s Gate Brewery became the largest in Ireland in terms out of output, while it began to expand beyond the original 4-acre site. However, the original lease stayed in place until the 1980s when it was eventually bought out for an undisclosed sum.