Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/418

Masham  to the office of remembrancer of the exchequer, the reversion of which had been previously granted to him by Anne. He died on 16 Oct. 1758, aged 79, and was buried at High Laver. According to the Duchess of Marlborough's contemptuous account of him, Masham 'always attended his wife and the queen's basset-table,' and was 'a soft, good-natured, insignificant man, always making low bows to everybody, and ready to skip to open a door' (, viii. 444). Masham purchased the manor of Langley Marsh, Buckinghamshire, from Sir Edward Seymour in 1714, and sold it in 1738 to Charles, second duke of Marlborough (, Bucks, iv. 533). He was one of the famous Society of Brothers to which Swift, Oxford, and Bolingbroke belonged. His residence at St. James's was 'the best night place' Swift had (, Works, iii. 46), and it was there that Swift made his final attempt to bring about a reconciliation between Oxford and Bolingbroke in May 1714 (ib. i. 206).

By his marriage with Abigail Hill, Masham had three sons—viz. (1) George, who died young, (2) Samuel [see below], and (3) Francis—and two daughters, viz. (1) Anne, who married Henry Hoare of Stourhead, Wiltshire, a London banker, on 11 April 1726, and died on 4 March 1727, and (2) Elizabeth, who died on 24 Oct. 1724, aged fifteen, and was buried at High Laver.

, second (1712–1776), whom Swift 'hated from a boy' ( and, Pope, 1871, vii. 352, note), was born in November 1712, and was educated at Westminster School. He was returned with two others for the borough of Droitwich at the general election in the summer of 1747, but his name was erased from the return by an order of the House of Commons on 9 Dec. 1747 (Journals of the Home of Commons, xxv. 463). He was auditor-general of the household of George, Prince of Wales. On the death of his father he succeeded as second Baron Masham, and took his seat in the House of Lords for the first time on 23 Nov. 1758 (Journals of the House of Lords, xxix. 391). He was granted a pension of 1,000l. a year by George III in January 1761 (Addit. MS. at Brit. Mus. 32918, f. 112), and in the following year became a lord of the bedchamber, an office which he retained until his death, which occurred on 14 June 1776, when both the barony and the baronetcy of Masham became extinct. He married, first, on 16 Oct. 1736, Harriet, daughter of Salway Winnington of Stanford Court, Worcestershire (see, Letters, 1857, ii. 20), who died on 1 July 1701. His second wife was Charlotte, daughter of John Dives of Westminster, one of the maids of honour to the Dowager Princess of Wales. Masham had no issue by either of his wives.

 MASHAM, DAMARIS, (1658–1708), theological writer, born at Cambridge 18 Jan. 1658, daughter of Ralph Cudworth, D.D. [q. v.], was educated under his care, and was early distinguished for her learning. About 1682 she became acquainted with John Locke the philosopher, and under his direction she studied divinity and philosophy. Locke formed the highest opinion of her, and in a letter to Limborch, written in 1690–1, says: 'She is so well versed in theological and philosophical studies, and of such an original mind, that you will not find many men to whom she is not superior in wealth of knowledge and ability to profit by it.'

In 1685 she married Sir Francis Masham (d. 1723), third bart., of Oates, Essex, a widower with nine children, whose youngest son was Lord Masham, husband of Abigail Hill [see ]; and in June 1686 Francis Cudworth Masham was born, her only child (subsequently accountant-general to the court of chancery), to whose education she devoted herself. Her father died on 26 June 1688, and her mother then went to Oates and resided there till her death in 1695, when she was buried in High Laver Church (see Notes