The Council

The Council is the governing body of the Circle. It consists of seven seats. The Chair sits at the head of an oval table that was carved, in 1797, from the heartwood of a single English oak. The other six members sit around the sides. There is an eighth chair at the foot of the table. The institution's records do not describe what the eighth chair is for, and have never, in any extant document, described the chair as occupied.

The Council meets on Tuesdays and Fridays. The Tuesday meetings are described, in the institution's internal correspondence, as business. The Friday meetings are described as observance. The compiler of this archive has been unable to determine what is observed.

Of the seven current members, four have been compelled into the public record:

• Simeon Hospodar (Chair, Veil) — see entry
• Augustin Backstrom (Scales) — see entry
• Amina Sow (Architects) — Senegalese, in her early fifties, the newest seat on the Council
• Victor Mahaffey (Ledger) — late forties, London-based, the institution's money

Three remaining members have not yet been compelled into the record. The institution has not been asked to assist in identifying them.