The Female Coterie

[2] The society was founded in 1769 by William Almack, already proprietor of the clubs later to become Boodle's and Brooks's, then based at his houses in Nos.

On 6 May 1770 Horace Walpole recorded that: By September 1770 this very exclusive club possessed 123 members, including five dukes.

Mrs. Boscawen says that it met 'for the present, at certain rooms of Almack's, who for another year is to provide a private house .

Cullen was left heavily in debt and the Chancery suit which he subsequently brought against certain members contains valuable information about the way in which such short-lived proprietary clubs were managed.

This group of demimondaines, which included Seymour Dorothy Fleming (whose sister was the Countess of Harrington's daughter-in-law, Jane Stanhope), met in a brothel owned by Sarah Pendergast.