to acquaint the nobility and gentry, subscribers to the Assembly in King Street, St. James's, that the first meeting will be Thursday, 24th inst [this month]. N.B. Tickets are ready to be delivered at the Assembly Room." William Almack died on 3 January 1781, bequeathing his house in Pall Mall to his widow and the residue of his property, including the assembly rooms, to his son William. On 28 February 1781 his only other surviving child, Elizabeth, married Dr. David Pitcairn, a Scottish physician. William Almack, the son, was a barrister; the short leases of part of the ground on which the assembly rooms stood were renewed to him and he appears to have managed the business until 1792. By this time, the prosperity of the rooms was in decline (probably due to the opening of the Pantheon in Oxford Street in 1772) and William Almack was compelled to mortgage them. He died unmarried and intestate on 27 October 1806 and his property passed to his sister Elizabeth Pitcairn. Her husband, Dr. Pitcairn, paid off the mortgages, and died in 1809. Elizabeth Pitcairn appears as the ratepayer from 1809 to 1817, and she may have managed the rooms during this period. In her will, which was proved in 1844, she left a large fortune, and the residue of her estate (including the assembly rooms) was bequeathed to her grandniece and adopted daughter, Elizabeth Campbell. The latter married Edward Calvert of Thurstonbury and their descendants retained the freehold (which had been acquired at an unknown date) until 1920. In 1792 the rate books show James Willis as the occupant or manager of the rooms. James Willis had been the proprietor of the Thatched House Tavern in St. James's Street since 1770 and on 18 August 1768 he had married Elizabeth Tebb, niece of William Almack senior. At the time of his death in 1794, he held a twenty-one-year sub-lease of the assembly rooms. His descendants continued to manage the rooms (except perhaps for the years 1809 to 1817) until 1886–87. For the whole of this period, the Willis family were tenants of Almack's descendants. In the nineteenth century, the rooms were often referred to as Willis's Rooms. Almack's at its peak By the beginning of the 19th century, with the Pantheon out of fashion, and the Assembly Rooms under the management of the Willises, Almack's was at the height of its