Abigail Masham, Baroness Masham

Abigail Masham, Baroness Masham (; 6 December 1734), was an English courtier. She was a favourite of Queen Anne, and a cousin of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough.

Life Early life Abigail Hill was the daughter of Francis Hill, a London merchant, and Elizabeth Hill (née Jennings). Elizabeth Hill was 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 for Sir John Rivers of Kent.

Abigail was befriended by her first cousin Sarah Jennings, or Lady Churchill (as the duchess was then known), who was Lady of the Bedchamber to Princess Anne. Sarah's friendship towards Abigail may have derived from embarrassment that her cousin had fallen on such hard times rather than being based on any genuine affection.

Sarah Churchill's claim that she had only recently, and quite by chance, become aware of Abigail's existence was justifiable, as their mutual grandfather Sir John Jennings had 22 children, and Sarah may well not have known of all her numerous first cousins. Sarah Churchill took Abigail into her own household at St. Albans. After the accession of Princess Anne to the throne in 1702, Abigail received an appointment in the Queen's Household about the year 1704.

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

Abigail soon quarrelled with Harley, who was now known as Lord Oxford and Mortimer, and set herself to foster by all the means in her power the Queen's growing personal distaste for her minister. Harley's vacillation between the Jacobites and the adherents of the Hanoverian succession to the Crown probably strengthened the opposition of Abigail, who now warmly favoured the Jacobite party led by Bolingbroke and Francis Atterbury.

Altercations took place in the Queen's presence between Abigail and the minister. Finally, on 27 July 1714, Anne dismissed Lord Oxford and Mortimer (as Harley was now known) from his office of Lord High Treasurer, and three days later gave the staff to the 1st Duke of Shrewsbury. Anne died on 1 August 1714, aged 49. Abigail then retired into private life and lived quietly at her country house Otes until her death in 1734. She is also portrayed by Svetlana Smirnova in the 1979 Soviet movie A Glass of Water, based on an 1840 play of the same name. She is portrayed by Jill Balcon in the 1969 BBC series The First Churchills.