and Queries, 6th ser. x. 264). Lady Masham's stepdaughter, Esther, also lived at Oates, and to her many of Locke's letters are addressed.
In 1690 John Norris [q. v.] of Bemerton, the English Platonist, inscribed to Lady Masham his ‘Reflections upon the Conduct of Human Life.’ In the dedication he describes her as blind, a statement which was inaccurate, although her sight was weak (Locke, Familiar Letters). Lady Masham was subsequently on friendly personal terms with Norris. In 1691 Locke was forced to leave London on account of his health, and went to live at Oates with Sir Francis, the result being that Lady Masham adopted Locke's views, upon which her intimacy with Norris ceased. Locke continued at Oates till his death, 28 Oct. 1704. In 1696 Lady Masham published without her name ‘A Discourse concerning the Love of God’ (London, 12mo; translated into French by Coste in 1705), in which she answered some theories put forward by Norris and Mrs. Astell in ‘Practical Discourses of Divinity.’ Mrs. Astell replied to Lady Masham in ‘The Christian Religion as professed by a Daughter of the Church of England.’ About 1700 Lady Masham wrote ‘Occasional Thoughts in reference to a Vertuous or Christian Life’ (London, 1705, 12mo), an appeal to women to study intelligently the grounds of their religious belief. She has been placed on the long list of the supposed authors of ‘The Whole Duty of Man’ [see Pakington, Dorothy, Lady], but chronology is clearly against her claim (cf. Nichols, Lit. Anecd. vii. 529).
Lady Masham also wrote an account of Locke in the ‘Great Historical Dictionary.’ She died 20 April 1708, and was buried in the middle aisle of Bath Abbey.
[Ballard's Learned Ladies; Fox Bourne's Life of Locke; Familiar Letters of Locke; Burke's Extinct Peerages, p. 359; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
MASKELL, WILLIAM (1814?–1890), medievalist, only son of William Maskell, solicitor, of Shepton Mallet, Somerset, born about 1814, matriculated on 9 June 1832 at University College, Oxford, whence he graduated B.A. in 1836, and proceeded M.A. in 1838, having taken holy orders in the previous year. From the first an extremely high churchman, he attacked in 1840 the latitudinarian bishop of Norwich, Edward Stanley [q. v.], for the support which he lent to the movement for the relaxation of subscription (see A Letter to the Clergy upon the Speech of the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Norwich in the House of Lords, 20 May 1840, by a Priest of the Church of England, London, 1840, 8vo). In 1842 he was instituted to the rectory of Corscombe, Dorset, and devoted himself to learned researches into the history of Anglican ritual and cognate matters. His 'Ancient Liturgy of the Church of England according to the Uses of Sarum, Bangor, York, and Hereford, and the Modern Roman Liturgy, arranged in parallel columns,' appeared in 1844, London, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1846; 3rd edit. 1882, and was followed by 'A History of the Martin Marprelate Controversy in the Time of Queen Elizabeth,' London, 1845, 8vo, and 'Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesiæ Anglicanre, or Occasional Offices of the Church of England according to the Ancient Use of Salisbury, the Prymer in English, and other Prayers and Forms, with Dissertations and Notes,' London, 1846, 3 vols. 8vo; 2nd edit. Oxford, 1882. These works at once placed Maskell in the front rank of English ecclesiastical antiquaries. Having resigned the rectory of Corscombe, he was instituted in 1847 to the vicarage of St. Mary Church, near Torquay, and appointed domestic chaplain to the Bishop of Exeter, Henry Phillpotts [q. v.], in which capacity he conducted the examination of the Rev. George Cornelius Gorham [q. v.], touching his views on baptism, on occasion of his presentation to the vicarage of Brampford Speke, near Exeter. For this office he was peculiarly well qualified, having made profound researches into the history of catholic doctrine and usage in regard to baptism from the earliest times. The fruit of these investigations appeared in his 'Holy Baptism: a Dissertation,' London, 1848, 8vo. In 1849 he published a volume of 'Sermons preached in the Parish Church of St. Mary,' London, 8vo, in which the highest views both of baptism and the holy eucharist were set forth; and in 'An Enquiry into the Doctrine of the Church of England upon Absolution,' London, 8vo, he attempted to justify the revival of the confessional. While the Gorham case was before the privy council he disputed the authority of the tribunal in 'A First Letter on the Present Position of the High Church Party in the Church of England,' London, 1850, 8vo, and after its decision he deplored the result in 'A Second Letter' on the same subject, London, 1850, 8vo. Soon afterwards he resigned his living, and was received into the church of Rome. He signalised his secession by appealing to Dr. Pusey to justify his practice of hearing auricular confessions (see his Letter to the Rev. Dr. Pusey on his receiving Persons in Auricular Confession, London, 1850, 8vo). Though himself a firm believer in the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, he regretted
