William Almack, founder of Almack's Assembly Rooms

 

William Almack 1715 -1781

William Almack was probably born in Sandhutton, North Yorkshire in about 1715, the son of John and Elizabeth Almack. He was Mary Alice Willis’s  5X great-uncle. His sister, Ann Almack, was Mary Alice Willis’s 4X great grandmother. Ann Almack’s daughter, Elizabeth Tebb, married James Willis in 1768.

 William’s origins are a bit of a mystery. Commentators at the time believed that he was Scottish and that his original surname was McCall. That was not the case, but his wife was born in Scotland and that may have caused confusion.  He is rumoured to have been a valet to the 5th Duke of Hamilton. I haven’t seen any evidence to support this but his wife’s father, William Cullen, did work for the Duke. In later years Elizabeth Cullen’s brother, another William, was physician to the 5^th Duke of Hamilton.

 William married Elizabeth Cullen in London in 1752. They had three children, William 1754 - 1806 who became a barrister, Elizabeth 1759 -1844 who married Dr. David Pitcairn and Euphemia 1760 - 1776. The Pitcairns were only very distantly related to us by marriage but they were an interesting family and I shall write about them separately.

By 1754 William Almack was running a coffee house in Curzon Street, London and then progressed to running private members' clubs. These evolved into Brooks's and Boodle's and were in competition with White’s. The clubs were notorious for the heavy gambling that took place there. 

'the gaming at Almack's which has taken the pas of White's, is worthy the decline of our Empire, or Commonwealth. . . . The young men of the age lose five, ten, fifteen thousand pounds in an evening there.' - Horace Walpole.

Building commenced on Almack's Assembly Rooms in King Street, Westminster in May 1764 and they opened on 12 February 1765. Twelve weekly balls were held during the season, access to tickets was controlled by a committee known as the lady patronesses. 

"All on that magic list depends;

Fame, fortune, fashion, lovers, friends;
'Tis that which gratifies or vexes
All ranks, all ages, all sexes.
If once to Almack's you belong,
Like monarchs, you can do no wrong;
But banished thence on Wednesday night,
By Jove you can do nothing right." Henry Luttrell.

William Almack handed over the running of the busines to James Willis in 1771 due to ill health. James had married Almack's niece Elizabeth Tebb in 1768 (Mary Alice Willis’s 3X great grandparents). The business remained in the Willis family for over a hundred years.

William died on the 3rd January 1781.