Abigail Masham, Baroness Masham

Abigail Masham, née Hill, Baroness Masham (d. 1734), was a favourite of Queen Anne and a cousin of Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. Events January 8 - Premiere of George Frideric Handels opera Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. ... Anne (6 February 1665 – 1 August 1714) became Queen of England and Ireland and Queen of Scots on 8 March 1702. ... Sarah Churchill Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (nee Jennings) rose to be one of the most influential women in British history, as a result of her close friendship with Queen Anne. ...

Abigail Hill was the daughter of Francis Hill, a London merchant, her mother being an aunt of Sarah Jennings, later Duchess of Marlborough. The family was reduced to poor circumstances through her father's speculations, and Lady Churchill (as the duchess was then known), Lady of the Bedchamber to Princess Anne, befriended her cousin Abigail. Churchill took Abigail into her own household at St. Albans. After the accession of the princess to the throne, she procured an appointment in the Queen's household about the year 1704. This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... This is an incomplete list of those who have served as Lady of the Bedchamber in the British Royal Household. ... St Albans, St. ... Events Building of the Students Monument in Aiud, Romania. ...

It was not long before Abigail Hill began to supplant her powerful and imperious kinswoman in the favour of Queen Anne. Whether she was guilty of the deliberate ingratitude charged against her by the Duchess of Marlborough is uncertain. It is not unlikely that Abigail's influence over the queen was not so much due to subtle scheming on her part as to the pleasing contrast between her gentle and genial character and the stronger temper of the duchess, which after many years of undisputed sway had finally become intolerable to Anne.

The first intimation of her protégé's growing favour with the Queen came to the duchess in the summer of 1707, when she learned that Abigail Hill had been privately married to a gentleman of the Queen's household named Samuel Masham, and that the queen herself had been present at the marriage. Churchill then found that Abigail had for some time enjoyed considerable intimacy with her royal mistress, no hint of which had previously reached the duchess. Abigail was a cousin of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, and after the Oxford's dismissal from office in February 1708 she assisted him in maintaining confidential relations with the Queen. The completeness of her ascendancy was seen in 1710 when the Queen compelled Marlborough, much against his will, to give an important command to Colonel John Hill, Abigail's brother. Sunderland, Godolphin, and the other Whig ministers were soon dismissed from office, largely owing to her influence, to make way for Oxford and Bolingbroke. // Events March 23 - James Francis Edward Stuart lands at the Firth of Forth July 1 - Tewoflos becomes Emperor of Ethiopia September 28 - Peter the Great defeats the Swedes at the Battle of Lesnaya Kandahar conquered by Mir Wais In Masuria one third of the population die during the plague J... // Events April 10 - The worlds first copyright legislation became effective, Britains Statute of Anne Ongoing events Great Northern War (1700-1721) War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) Births January 3 - Richard Gridley, American Revolutionary soldier (d. ... John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722) was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs throughout the late 17th and early 18th centuries. ... Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland (c. ... Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (c. ... The Whigs (with the Tories) are often described as one of two political parties in England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to the mid 19th centuries. ... Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, Baron Saint John Of Lydiard Tregoze and Battersea, (September 16, 1678 – December 12, 1751), was an English statesman and philosopher. ...

In the following year the Duchess of Marlborough was also dismissed from her appointment at court, Mrs. Masham taking her place as Keeper of the Privy Purse. In 1711 the ministers, intent on bringing about the disgrace of Marlborough and arranging the Peace of Utrecht, found it necessary to secure their position in the House of Lords by creating twelve new peers; one of these was Samuel Masham, Abigail's husband, though Anne showed some reluctance to raise her bedchamber woman to a position in which she might show herself less ready to give her personal services to the queen. Lady Masham soon quarrelled with Oxford, and set herself to foster by all the means in her power the Queen's growing personal distaste for her minister. Oxford's vacillation between the Jacobites and the adherents of the Hanoverian succession to the Crown probably strengthened the opposition of Lady Masham, who now warmly favoured the Jacobite party led by Bolingbroke and Francis Atterbury. Altercations took place in the Queen's presence between Lady Masham and the minister; and finally, on July 27, 1714, Anne dismissed Oxford from his office of lord high treasurer, and three days later gave the staff to the Duke of Shrewsbury. Anne died on August 1st, and Lady Masham then retired into private life. She died on December 6, 1734. The Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer to the Queen is responsible for the financial management of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. ... 1711 (MDCCXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar). ... The Treaties of Utrecht (April 11, 1713) were signed in Utrecht, a city of the United Provinces. ... This article is about the British House of Lords. ... Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, wearing the Jacobite blue bonnet Jacobitism was (and, to a very limited extent, remains) the political movement dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England and Scotland. ... The Electress Sophia The Act of Settlement (12 & 13 Wm 3 c. ... Francis Atterbury (March 6, 1663 - February 22, 1732), was an English man of letters, politician and bishop. ... Battle of Gangut, by Maurice Baquoi, 1724-27. ... The Lord High Treasurer bears a white staff as his symbol of office. ... Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury ( 24 July 1660 – 1 February 1718), was the only son of Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury and his second wife, Anne-Marie Brudenell, a daughter of Robert Brudenell, 2nd Earl of Cardigan; (she became the notorious mistress of the 2nd Duke of...

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.