Robert Rundell Guinness (12 December 1789 -7 March 1857) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

, most famous for co-founding the

Guinness Mahon Guinness Mahon was an Irish merchant bank originally based in Dublin but more recently with operations in London. History Formation The firm was founded as a land agency in Dublin in 1836 by barrister Robert Rundell Guinness, a great-nephew of th ...

bank in 1836. The grandson of a Dublin goldbeater Samuel Guinness (1727-1795), he is the first of the "banking line" in the

Guinness family The Guinness family is an extensive Irish family known for its accomplishments in brewing, banking, politics, and religious ministry. The brewing branch is particularly well known among the general public for producing the dry stout Guinnes ...

Family

Robert was the son of Richard Guinness (1755-1829), a Dublin barrister and judge, and his wife Mary Darley, descended from a well-known Dublin house-building family. He was a grand-nephew of the brewer

Arthur Guinness 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. Born in Celbridge, County Kildare around 1725, Guinness ...

, and the elder brother of

Richard Samuel Guinness Richard Samuel Guinness (7 June 1797 – 27 August 1857) was an Irish lawyer and a Member of Parliament. Parents Guinness was one of the sons of Richard Guinness (1755-1829), a Dublin barrister and judge, and his wife Mary Darley, descended from ...

MP. He married firstly Mary Anne Seymour in November 1822, who died in 1837 at their home in

Stillorgan Stillorgan (, also ''Stigh Lorcáin'' and previously ''Tigh Lorcáin'' or ''Teach Lorcáin''), formerly a village in its own right, is now a suburban area of Dublin in Ireland. Stillorgan is located in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, and contains ma ...

County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...

. They had 3 children: * Mary Catherine (1823-1905), who married

Sir Samuel Ferguson Sir Samuel Ferguson (10 March 1810 – 9 August 1886) was an Irish poet, barrister, antiquarian, artist and public servant. He was an acclaimed 19th-century Irish poet, and his interest in Irish mythology and early Irish history can be seen ...

* Richard Seymour (1826-1915), a banker with Guinness Mahon from 1841 * Henry (1829–93), a banker with Guinness Mahon from 1851 He remarried to Mary Anne Moore in June 1840, and they had 7 children, including * Revd Robert Guinness (1841-1918) * 6 daughters who died childless. His grandson

Henry Guinness Henry Seymour Guinness (24 November 1858 – 4 April 1945) was an Irish engineer, banker and politician. Early life Guinness was born at Burton Hall, Stillorgan, County Dublin, the family home, on 24 November 1858. He was a son of Emelina ( n� ...

became an Irish senator in 1922. His granddaughter Lucy Guinness was the wife of the painter

Philip de László Philip Alexius László de Lombos (born Fülöp Laub; hu, Fülöp Elek László; 30 April 1869 – 22 November 1937), known professionally as Philip de László, was an Anglo-Hungarian painter known particularly for his portraits of royal an ...

Guinness Mahon

Like his father, uncle and brother, Robert trained as a lawyer at the

Kings Inns The Honorable Society of King's Inns ( ir, Cumann Onórach Óstaí an Rí) is the "Inn of Court" for the Bar of Ireland. Established in 1541, King's Inns is Ireland's oldest school of law and one of Ireland's significant historical environmen ...

and was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in Dublin. Having run and dissolved a financial partnership with his brother

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...

in 1836, he went into partnership in the same year with John Ross Mahon, principally as land agents, trading in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

as Guinness & Mahon; and from 1851 as Guinness Mahon & Company. In 1854 the firm moved to premises on

College Green College Green or The College Green may refer to: * College Green, Adelaide outdoor venue at the University of Adelaide * College Green, Bristol, England * College Green (Dartmouth College), New Hampshire, primarily known as "the Green" * College ...

in the centre of Dublin, increasing its banking business, and adding lines in

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

and assurance. From his death in 1857 the banking side was further developed by his sons Richard Seymour and Henry, who went on to arrange advantageous discounting terms in 1873 with the

Bank of Ireland Bank of Ireland Group plc ( ga, Banc na hÉireann) is a commercial bank operation in Ireland and one of the traditional Big Four Irish banks. Historically the premier banking organisation in Ireland, the Bank occupies a unique position in Iris ...

Other interests

Guinness was elected a life member of the

Royal Dublin Society The Royal Dublin Society (RDS) ( ga, Cumann Ríoga Bhaile Átha Cliath) is an Irish philanthropic organisation and members club which was founded as the 'Dublin Society' on 25 June 1731 with the aim to see Ireland thrive culturally and economi ...

from 1821, joining its botany committee in 1823-26; its economy committee in 1831-38; and its statistics committee in 1840–41.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guinness, Robert Rundell 1789 births 1857 deaths

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

Irish barristers Irish bankers Alumni of King's Inns 19th-century Irish businesspeople