Richard Hennessy ( ga, Ristéard Ó h-Aonghusa; 1724 — 8 October 1800) was an Irish military officer and businessman, best known for founding the

Hennessy Jas Hennessy & Co., commonly known simply as Hennessy (), is a French producer of cognac, which has its headquarters in Cognac, France. It is one of the "big four" cognac houses, along with Martell, Courvoisier, and Rémy Martin, who together ma ...

cognac Cognac ( , also , ) is a variety of brandy named after the Communes of France, commune of Cognac, France. It is produced in the surrounding wine-growing region in the Departments of France, departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime. Cog ...

dynasty, which is today a luxury brand and one of the most prominent in the world. Hennessy was from

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

, Ireland, and, due to his Jacobite political tendencies, went into exile in France, eventually serving in the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed For ...

Biography

Background and early life

Richard Hennessy was born in 1724 to James Hennessy and Catherine Barrett at Ballymacmoy House,

Killavullen Killavullen () is a village on the river Blackwater, in County Cork, Ireland. The village is located just south of the N72 road, between Mallow and Castletownroche. It is east of Mallow and north of Cork city. The census of 2002 put the po ...

, a small village in

, Ireland. His paternal family were of

Gaelic Irish The Gaels ( ; ga, Na Gaeil ; gd, Na Gàidheil ; gv, Ny Gaeil ) are an ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man in the British Isles. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic languag ...

stock; the Hennessys were anciently of the ''

Laighin The Laigin, modern spelling Laighin (), were a Gaelic population group of early Ireland. They gave their name to the Kingdom of Leinster, which in the medieval era was known in Irish as ''Cóiced Laigen'', meaning "Fifth/province of the Leinster ...

'' and claimed descent from a junior branch of the O'Dempsey family. Specifically with Richard's family, his family were able to restore themselves to a level of prominence through his grandfather's marriage to a daughter of the Norman descended Sir

Richard Nagle Sir Richard Nagle (1636 – 6 April 1699) was an Irish Jacobite politician and lawyer. He held the positions of Attorney-General for Ireland, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, Lord Justice of Ireland and Secretary of State and War for I ...

. Growing up an

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the British ...

to a family of some ambition, in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1688, whereby Anglo-Protestant hegemony was operative in Ireland, the young Richard Hennessy at the age of 19 elected to leave the country for

Bourbon France The Kingdom of France ( fro, Reaume de France; frm, Royaulme de France; french: link=yes, Royaume de France) is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the Middle Ages, medieval and Early mod ...

. Here he joined the Clare Regiment of the Irish Brigade in the

, serving as an officer. This was in the service of king

Louis XV of France Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...

. Shortly after the

Battle of Fontenoy The Battle of Fontenoy was a major engagement of the War of the Austrian Succession, fought on 11 May 1745 near Tournai in modern Belgium. A French army of 50,000 under Marshal Saxe defeated a Pragmatic Army of roughly the same size, led by th ...

in 1745 he became familiar with the

Charente Charente (; Saintongese: ''Chérente''; oc, Charanta ) is a department in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, south western France. It is named after the river Charente, the most important and longest river in the department, an ...

region, famous for its

production. Using money he had earned in his military career, he decided to become involved in cognac investment from afar, without much success initially.

Hennessy cognac production

Richard Hennessy and his cousin James Hennessy went to

Ostend Ostend ( nl, Oostende, ; french: link=no, Ostende ; german: link=no, Ostende ; vls, Ostende) is a coastal city and municipality, located in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerk ...

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

in 1757 to learn how to trade. Upon returning to France in 1765 he decided to settle in the Charente area permanently with his wife Ellen Barrett (an aunt of the political philosopher

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS">New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS/nowiki>_1729_–_9_July_1797)_was_an_ NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style"> ...

) and their son Jacques Hennessy (11 October 1765 – 22 April 1843). With the assistance of some of the banking houses in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, he and two business partners by the name of Connelly and Arthur began trading in cognac from his house. During this time the trade in

alcoholic spirits Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or hard l ...

were booming, popular not only with French customers, but also with foreigners, especially people from the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

showing interest, leading to a massive boom in cognac in the 1760s. Indeed, in Hennessy's homeland, the

Kingdom of Ireland The Kingdom of Ireland ( ga, label=Classical Irish, an Ríoghacht Éireann; ga, label=Modern Irish, an Ríocht Éireann, ) was a monarchy on the island of Ireland that was a client state of England and then of Great Britain. It existed from ...

, spirits from the European Continent were popular, because customs duties were much lower than those imposed in the

Kingdom of Great Britain The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a Sovereign state, sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of ...

. As well as this there was a shortage of

rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Ph ...

due to the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

and "implied that the growing taste for alcohol could only be satisfied by increased imports." Hennessy expanded his customer base by shipping the product from Cognac to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

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 ...

and Flanders. He also had clients at the Court of the King of France, such as the

Prince of Soubise Within the French nobility, the title of "Prince of Soubise" was created in 1667 when the '' sirerie'' of Soubise, Charente-Maritime was raised to a principality for the cadet branch of the House of Rohan. The first prince was François de Rohan ...

, familiar with the Charente. However, the Hennessy House was still of negligible importance in the 1770s, and Richard Hennessy left the city in 1776 to settle in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

, where he had associates, as a distiller, in association with

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

George Boyd. It was only in the context of the revolutionary decade that "the Hennessy, until then a minor house, reached the rank of great." Two marriage covenants with an older and firmly established house, the Martells, allowed and endorsed both this promotion in the last decade of the century.

References

*''Le Choix de Cognac : l'établissement des négociants irlandais en eau-de-vie au XVIIIe siècle'', by Louis Cullen *''La naissance d'une dynastie du cognac Richard Hennessy 1727–1800'', by Monique le Tac *''Les Réfugiés jacobites dans la France du XVIIIe siècle'', by Patric Clarke de Dromantin *''Archives de la Maison Hennessy''

External links

Richard Hennessy
at Peerage.com
"Hennessy, Richard"
at ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''
Richard Hennessy, founder and visionary
at Hennessy.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Hennessy, Richard 1724 births 1800 deaths 18th-century Irish people Irish businesspeople Irish Jacobites Irish soldiers Irish emigrants to France Irish soldiers in the French Army People from County Cork Cognac Wild Geese (soldiers) Hennessy family

Biography

Background and early life

Hennessy cognac production

See also

References

External links