Samuel Whitbread was born on 20 August 1720 at Cardington in Bedfordshire, the seventh of eight children of Henry Whitbread.[2] At 12, he received two years' education with a local clergyman, before being sent at age 14 to London to live with family (most likely, his uncle).[2] At age 16, his family paid £300 for him to be taken as an apprentice at a brewery under John Wightman (Master of the Brewers' Company from 1734 to 1735).[3]
After learning the brewery trade, Samuel Whitbread went into partnership with Godfrey and Thomas Shewell in 1742, investing £2,600 in two of the Shewell's small breweries, the Goat Brewhouse (where porter was produced) in Old Street and a brewery nearby in Brick Lane (used to produce pale and amber beers).[4]
Demand for the strong, black porter had begun to the grow and Whitbread identified the need for scale to ensure commercial success, moving the business to larger premises on the site of the derelict Kings Head Brewery in Chiswell Street in 1750.[5]
Starting over, Whitbread invested in all the latest technology to industrialize production,[6] storing the beer in large vats. The brewery was also one of the first to employ a steam engine (purchasing a sun and planet gear engine, the Whitbread Engine, from James Watt's company in 1785). While not the first to discover Porter production, Whitbread became the first to exploit it commercially on a large scale and this coincided with an increase in beer consumption in the UK, following regulations to limit the sale of gin owing to the excesses of the Gin Craze.[5]
By 1760, it had become the second largest brewery in London (producing almost 64,000 barrels annually). By 1770 Whitbread had bought out his partners for £30,000.[7] By the end of the century, Whitbread's business was London's biggest producer of beer, producing 202,000 barrels in 1796. In May 1787 the brewery was visited by King George III and Queen Charlotte. By 1793, Whitbread had become a Freeman of the Brewers' Company.[7]
Samuel Whitbread died on 11 June 1796 at Bedworth Park.[16]The Gentleman's Magazine speculated that he was "worth over a million pounds" (equivalent to £124,190,000 in 2023).