The Great Tew Circle was a group of clerics and literary figures who gathered in the 1630s at the manor house of Great Tew, Oxfordshire in southern England, and in London.
Lord Clarendon referred to the Circle as “A college situate in a purer air”, referring to its pursuit of truth away from the partisan passions of the town. The house was the property of the noble Cary family, and the circle was brought together by Lucius Cary, who became 2nd Viscount Falkland on the death of his father in 1633. The most prominent of those taking part was Edward Hyde, the future 1st Earl of Clarendon, who after 1660 would become known as a leading statesman, and then a historian
The philosophical and religious study group led by Lucius Cary which met at Great Tew Manor from c 1633 to 1639 before the Civil War. The members of the Circle could be described as precursors of the Enlightenment.
We are planning to examine the activities of the Great Tew Circle by holding talks at the Church (followed by supper) two times a year with guest speakers.
