Kit-Cat Club, London political and literary club, active c.1700-1720. The membership of some four dozen included leading Whig politicians and London's best young writers. Among them were Charles Seymour, 6th duke of Somerset; Sir Robert Walpole; Thomas Pelham-Holles, duke of Newcastle; William Congreve; Joseph Addison; Sir Richard Steele; and Sir Godfrey Kneller, who did portraits of the members. The club was the center of opposition during Queen Anne's Tory ministry (1710-14).