A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Masham, Lady Damaris
MASHAM, LADY DAMARIS,
Was the daughter of Dr. Ralph Cudworth, and born at Cambridge, on the 18th. of January, 1668. She was the second wife of Sir Francis Masham, of Oates, in the county of Essex, by whom she had only one son. Her father took great pains in her education; and she was skilled in philosophy and divinity. Much of her improvement was undoubtedly owing to her intimacy with the famous Locke, who lived many years in her family, and died in her house at Oates. She wrote "A Discourse concerning the Love of God," and "Occasional Thoughts in reference to a Virtuous and Christian Life;" and several other pamphlets which she published anonymously. She died in 1708, and was interred in the cathedral church at Bath, where a monument is erected to her memory.