King of Clubs (Whig Club) - Membership

Membership

The original inspiration for its formation came from the Rev. Sydney Smith's older brother, Robert - nicknamed "Bobus" after gaining the reputation at Eton for being such a clever Latin "versifier". The founding members were a group of friends who first met at the house of James Mackintosh in February, 1798. As well as Mackintosh, the group comprised Samuel Rogers, James Scarlett, 1st Baron Abinger, Richard "Conversation" Sharp, the historian John Allen and Robert Smith and by 1801 what had started as a small clique of friends had become a properly constituted club comprising the following members,

• Richard Porson
• Smithson Tennant
• John Courtney
• Bryan Edwards
• "Bobus" Smith
• Jo. Richardson
• John Allen
• Samuel Rogers
• Charles Butler
• Richard Sharp
• James Scarlett, 1st Baron Abinger
• James Mackintosh
• William Dickinson
• John Whishaw
• Josiah Wedgwood II
• Pierre Etienne Louis Dumont
• Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland

Within seven years the club expanded to include such additional illustrious names as

• Thomas Moore
• John Wedgwood
• Henry Brougham
• Thomas Creevey
• William Smith
• Lord Petty
• George Philips
• Francis Horner
• Rev. Peter Elmsley
• Samuel Romilly
• John Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley
• Rev. Sydney Smith
• John Hoppner
• Samuel Boddington

The King of Clubs had by now become well known throughout London as an exclusive Whig dining club where erudite conversation on all matters pertaining to books, authors and literature took place, but where the discussion of politics was positively excluded. Tom Campbell described the club as "a gathering-place of brilliant talkers, dedicated to the meetings of the reigning wits of London". The annual subscription had originally been set at 2 guineas but this was reduced to £2 in 1804, raised to 3 guineas in 1808, and finally fixed at £3 in 1810. As a dining club, an additional charge of 10 shillings and 6 pence was made for dinner, a considerable sum in those days, and princely suppers were held in Harley Street and later at the Crown and Anchor, Arundel Street, in the Strand. The Crown and Anchor was the very inn where Samuel Johnson and James Boswell had once enjoyed supping together; and it was especially popular among the Whigs after it had hosted a great banquet in honour of Fox's birthday in 1798, when an enormous crowd of 2000 Reformers had toasted The People – the Source of Power!

Such was the popularity of the King of Clubs, and so sought after did membership become, that in 1808 a decision was taken to limit membership to a maximum of thirty people who were resident in England. By this time the membership had gained:

• Lord Melbourne
• Earl Cowper
• William Blake
• Abercromby (Lord Dunfermline)
• Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton
• Charles Kinnaird, 8th Lord Kinnaird
• Henry Luttrell
• R.P. Knight
• Thomas Malthus
• Lord John Townshend MP
• John Fleming
• John Playfair
• George Lamb
• Lord King
• Henry Hallam
• David Ricardo
• Lord Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman

In 1797 Bobus Smith, the originator of the club, accepted a seven year posting in India as Advocate General of Bengal. His move abroad was a great loss to the King of Clubs and while he was away he asked Richard Sharp to perform a number of duties for him:

"...for I bear you the warmest and most sincere regard, and look upon your friendship as one of the greatest pleasures, past and to come, which has fallen in my way these many years."

Sydney Smith came to London and took his brother's place at the club in 1803/4, having previously worked with Francis Jeffrey and Henry Brougham on the Edinburgh Review, a renowned Whig literary magazine, which, with Allen, he had helped to initiate. When he arrived in the city, the irrepressible Sydney formed an immediate attachment to the King of Clubs and his unique sense of humour quickly endeared him to other members and gave meetings an added piquancy. The club lost another of its original members when Sir James Mackintosh, recently knighted, accepted the post of Recordership of Bombay in 1804 and followed in Bobus's footsteps.

A record book of the King of Clubs has been preserved and a typical meeting of about this time (1804) lists the following members in attendance:

• Richard Porson
• Richard Sharp
• James Scarlett
• Sir James Mackintosh
• Sydney Smith
• Samuel Boddington
• Hon. William Drummond
• George Philips Manchester
• Henry Luttrell
• David Ricardo
• Charles Kinnaird, 8th Lord Kinnaird Lower Grosvenor St