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The Female Coterie was the title given to a group of "ladies of quality" in 18th century London. Horace Walpole described their activities as meeting every morning "either to play cards, chat or do whatever else they please". [1] Dinner and supper were provided, followed by the card game loo. The founding members were Mrs Fitzroy, Lady Pembroke, Mrs Meynell, Lady Molyneux, Miss Pelham and Miss Lloyd. [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. 49 and 50 Pall Mall, and of the famous Assembly Rooms on King Street. The society first met on 17 December 1769 and soon attracted a great deal of attention. On 6 May 1770 Horace Walpole recorded that:
By September 1770 this very exclusive club possessed 123 members, including five dukes. It is not certain in which of Almack's two houses in Pall Mall it met; Mrs. Elizabeth Harris placed it at Boodle's (No. 50) but an undated letter of the Hon. 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 . .' By December 1771 it had moved to Albemarle Street; it remained there under the management of Robert Sutton until 1775, when it moved to Arlington Street under the management of James Cullen. The last meeting of the club was held on 4 December 1777. 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.
The New Female Coterie was founded by Caroline Stanhope, Countess of Harrington, who had been blackballed by the founders of the original Female Coterie. 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. [3]
General Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Harrington, styled Viscount Petersham until 1779, was a British Army officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1774 and 1779 when he succeeded to the peerage as Earl of Harrington.
William Philip Molyneux, 2nd Earl of Sefton, also known as Lord Dashalong, was a sportsman, gambler and a friend of the Prince Regent.
Almack's was the name of a number of establishments and social clubs in London between the 18th and 20th centuries. Two of the social clubs would go on to fame as Brooks's and Boodle's. Almack's most famous establishment was based in assembly rooms on King Street, St James's, and was one of a limited number of upper class mixed-sex public social venues in the British capital in an era when the most important venues for the hectic social season were the grand houses of the aristocracy. The site of the club, Almack's Assembly Rooms or Willis's Rooms, has become retrospectively interchangeable with the club, though for much of the club's lifetime, the rooms offered a variety of other entertainments with no connection to the club.
Richard Grosvenor, 1st Earl Grosvenor, known as Sir Richard Grosvenor, Bt between 1755 and 1761 and as The Lord Grosvenor between 1761 and 1784, was a British peer, racehorse owner and art collector. He was created Baron Grosvenor in 1761 and in 1784 became both Viscount Belgrave and Earl Grosvenor.
General William Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Harrington was a British politician and soldier.
Hallie Rubenhold is a British historian and author. Her work specializes in 18th and 19th century social history and women's history. Her 2019 book The Five, about the lives of the women murdered by Jack the Ripper, was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize and won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction. Rubenhold's focus on the victims of murder, rather than on the identity or the acts of the perpetrator, has been credited with changing attitudes to the proper commemoration of such crimes and to the appeal and function of the true crime genre.
Boodle's is a London gentlemen's club, founded in January 1762, at No. 50 Pall Mall, London, by Lord Shelburne, the future Marquess of Lansdowne and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Anne, Duchess of Cumberland and Strathearn was a member of the British royal family, the wife of Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland and Strathearn.
Seymour Dorothy Fleming, styled Lady Worsley from 1775 to 1805, was a member of the British gentry, notable for her involvement in a high-profile criminal conversation trial.
Charlotte Hayes was a highly successful brothel keeper in early Georgian London, and the owner of some of the city's most luxurious brothels in and around King's Place, in St James's.
William Almack (1741–1781) was an English valet, merchant and tavern owner, who became the founder of fashionable clubs and assembly-rooms. His Almack's Coffee House was bought in 1774 and became the gentlemen's club, Brooks's.
Jane Stanhope, Countess of Harrington, was a society hostess and heiress who served as a lady of the Bedchamber to the British queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
Charles William Wyndham was an English politician.
Maria Molyneux, Countess of Sefton, was the wife of William Molyneux, 2nd Earl of Sefton.
Isabella Molyneux, Countess of Sefton, formerly Viscountess Molyneux, was a British peeress and society figure.
Caroline Stanhope, Countess of Harrington was a British socialite and demimonde. After being blackballed by the English social group The Female Coterie, she founded The New Female Coterie, a social club of courtesans and "fallen women" that met in a brothel. Known for her infidelity and bisexuality, she was nicknamed the "Stable Yard Messalina" due to her adulterous lifestyle. Her "colourful" life is often contrasted with that of her daughter-in-law, Jane Stanhope, Countess of Harrington, who was viewed as a respectable member of British high society.
The New Female Coterie was an 18th-century London social club.
Henrietta, Lady Grosvenor was an English aristocrat, socialite, and courtesan.
Penelope Ligonier, née Penelope Pitt (1749–1827), was an English aristocrat and socialite, and first wife of Edward Ligonier, Earl Ligonier of Clonmell.
The Masque at Ashby Castle or Entertainment at Ashby was written by John Marston for Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon and performed at Ashby de la Zouch Castle for Alice Spencer, Countess of Derby in August 1607.
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