Abigail Masham, Baroness Masham

Who was Abigail Masham, Baroness Masham?

Abigail Masham, Baroness Masham was a favourite of Queen Anne and a cousin of Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough.

Abigail Hill was the daughter of Francis Hill, a London merchant, her mother, Elizabeth Hill, being an aunt of Sarah Jennings, later Duchess of Marlborough. The family was reduced to poor circumstances through her father's speculations, and Abigail was forced to work as a servant of Sir John Rivers of Kent. Lady Churchill, Lady of the Bedchamber to Princess Anne, befriended her cousin Abigail – possibly out of embarrassment that her cousin had fallen on such hard times rather than any genuine affection. 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.

1704 was the year that the Queen became weary of the Duchess's frequent absences from the Court, and her political lectures – Sarah was a Whig and Anne was a Tory, and Sarah wanted Anne to appoint more Whig ministers, the majority of which were in favour of the Duke of Marlborough's wars. The Queen, not prepared to abandon the "Church Party" even for her favourite, confided to her Lord Treasurer, the Earl of Godolphin, that she did not feel that she and Sarah could ever be true friends again. 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.