Richard Samuel Guinness was an Irish lawyer and a Member of Parliament.
Background
Richard 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 great-nephew of the brewer Arthur Guinness.
His elder brother Robert Rundell Guinness (1789-1857) founded the Guinness Mahon merchant bank in 1836.
Career
Richard was called to the bar at the King"s Inns in Dublin and practised as a barrister. He then worked as a land agent, trading as "R. Guinness & Company", but found it difficult in the aftermath of the Irish famine of the 1840s. His election as Member of Parliament for the Kinsale division ended abruptly in early 1848.
On a petition by the losing Liberal candidate, WH Watson, a select committee found that Richard"s agents" generous hospitality in providing free drinks for the electorate of Kinsale in Kiley"s public house amounted to bribery.
While Richard was personally exonerated, his election was voided. The committee comprised 3 hostile Liberal MPs and 2 fellow conservatives.
At the next election the Liberal Benjamin Hawes took the seat by just 3 votes. Adelaide (1844-1916) who m.
Richard represented 2 divisions in the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland: Kinsale (United Kingdom Parliament constituency).
1847 representing the Irish Conservative Party. His election was voided in 1848. Barnstaple (United Kingdom Parliament constituency).
1854-1857 representing the Conservative Party (United Kingdom).
Richard died in 1857 aged 60. His Netto estate at death was just £100.