Richard Guest was born in Burslem but walked to Whitehaven as a young man where he met and married his wife Elizabeth. She died of Cholera in her late twenties leaving him with four young children and his eldest daughter Sarah became the family housekeeper. According to his son George’s evidence to the Royal Commission, his father was at some time “a great drunkard” but by the time he arrived at the Saint Helen’s Pottery he was an advocate of temperance. There he met Thomas Chapman Dewsberry who married his daughter Sarah in 1838. The family set off together for the Potteries and by the Spring 1841 were living together in Burslem. Richard and his son David were said to have been contemplating emigrating to America when they heard about the new pottery in Llanelli. Richard Guest set off for South Wales on foot, where he signed one of the first contracts there in September 1841. He spoke of the hardship of that journey. The Welsh people were inhospitable, reluctant to give him lodgings and had such difficulty understanding his Staffordshire accent that in shops he had to point to what he wanted. His son David followed him there once the pottery was in production - while he settled there Richard Guest had returned to Staffordshire by 1851.