Richard Hennessy (; 1720 — 8 October 1800) was an Irish military officer and businessman, best known for founding the Hennessy brand of cognac in Charente. He was from County Cork, and became exiled in France due to his Jacobitism.
Biography
Richard Hennessy was born in 1720 to James Hennessy and Catherine Barrett at Ballymacmoy House,
Killavullen, a small village on the Blackwater river, in
County Cork, then part of the Kingdom of Ireland.
His family were
, and Hennessy grew up supporting
Jacobitism, which led him to seek exile in 1740 at the age of nineteen.
[
]
He went to Bourbon France, where he joined Dillon's Regiment in the Irish Brigade of the French Army, serving as an officer in the service of King Louis XV.[ Hennessy fought at Fontenoy in 1745. In 1763, he married Ellen Barrett and, in 1765, founded the Hennessy cognac distillery in
]
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Further reading
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Le Choix de Cognac : l'établissement des négociants irlandais en eau-de-vie au XVIIIe siècle, by Louis Cullen
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La naissance d'une dynastie du cognac Richard Hennessy 1727–1800, by Monique le Tac
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Les Réfugiés jacobites dans la France du XVIIIe siècle, by Patric Clarke de Dromantin
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Archives de la Maison Hennessy
External links
