Benjamin Seymour Guinness

Benjamin Seymour Guinness (18 November 1868 – 15 December 1947),^[1] was an Anglo-American businessman, banker and lawyer.

Don Benjamin Guinness, by Arnold Genthe

Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1868, into the "banking line" of the prominent Anglo-Irish Guinness family, Benjamin Seymour Guinness was the fourth son of Richard Seymour Guinness (1826–1915) and a grandson of Robert Rundell Guinness, founder of the Guinness Mahon bank. He was great-nephew of the brewer Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, Bart. and thus a cousin of the Earls of Iveagh.^[2]

Guinness was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Navy in 1882.^[3] He retired in 1892 with the substantive rank of Lieutenant.^[4]

Based in New York, Guinness was a director of the New York Trust Company, Lackawanna Steel Company, Kansas City Southern Railway, Seaboard Air Line Railroad, Duquesne Light Company, and United Railroads of San Francisco. He was also a partner in Ladenburg Thalmann.^[2]

Mrs. Benjamin Guinness of New York, by Antonio Argnani

Guinness married Bridget Henrietta Williams-Bulkeley (1870–1931), the sister of Sir Richard Williams-Bulkeley, 12th Baronet;^[2] with whom he had three children, including G./Capt. Loel Guinness.^[5] In 1936 he remarried to Donna Maria Nunziante di Mignano (1886–1974), daughter and heiress of the Italian Duke of Mignano, of Castello Monte Mignano. His wife was awarded the titular style of Princess by King Umberto II of Italy, decreed on 22 May 1946.^[4][6]

Following his death in 1947, his widow and children were involved in a lengthy dispute over his estate.^[7]