Damaris Cudworth, Lady Masham (18 January 1659 – 20 April 1708) was an English philosopher, writer, theologian, and advocate for women's education who is often characterized as a proto-feminist. She overcame some weakness of eyesight and lack of access to formal higher education to win high regard among eminent thinkers of her time. With an extensive correspondence, she published two works, A Discourse Concerning the Love of God (1696) and Occasional Thoughts in reference to a Vertuous or Christian Life (1705).
Family background Damaris Cudworth, known as Lady Masham after her marriage, was born on 18 January 1659, and came from a distinguished, learned family. She was the daughter of the Reverend Professor Ralph Cudworth (1617-88) and his wife, also named Damaris Cudworth, (née Cradock) (d. 1695). Her father had become Master of Christ's College in the University of Cambridge, five years before his daughter's birth. He held this position for the rest of his life and his daughter grew up in a rarefied intellectual environment. A distinguished classicist and Regius Professor of Hebrew, her father had been educated in the non-conforming environment of Emmanuel College during the 1630s. Both his father, a clergyman and royal chaplain, also named Ralph Cudworth) and his stepfather, the clergyman John Stoughton (1593–1639), had previously studied and held Fellowships there, and had successively held the college rectorate of Aller, Somerset (where the younger Ralph had been born). He became a leading figure of the Cambridge Platonist School,See and poured immense erudition and originality into his great work, The True Intellectual System of the Universe.R. Cudworth, The true intellectual system of the universe. The first part wherein all the reason and philosophy of atheism is confuted and its impossibility demonstrated (Richard Royston, London (1678) but with imprimatur of 1671). Overtly a refutation of atheistic determinism, his work evolved in critique of aspects of Calvinist theology, in the light of his near-contemporary René Descartes, and in opposition to Thomas Hobbes.Benjamin Carter, 'The standing of Ralph Cudworth as a Philosopher', in G.A.J. Rogers, Tom Sorell and Jill Kraye (eds), Insiders and Outsiders in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy (Routledge 2010), pp. 99–111. Catherine Osborne, 'Ralph Cudworth's The True Intellectual System of the Universe and the Presocratic Philosophers', in Oliver Primavesi and Katharina Luchner (eds) The Presocratics from the Latin Middle Ages to Hermann Diels (Steiner Verlag 2011), pp 215–35.
Masham's mother, Damaris, daughter of Damaris and Mathew Cradock of London (d. 1641),Will of Mathew Cradock (P.C.C. 1641). was first married to London merchant citizen Thomas Andrewes (d. 1653)Will Of Thomas Andrewes (P.C.C. 1653). (son of the Commonwealth Lord Mayor of London Sir Thomas Andrewes), by whom there were several half-brothers and sisters.Wills of Ralph Cudworth (P.C.C. 1688) and Damaris Cudworth (P.C.C. 1695). Her mother's stepmother Rebeccah (widow of Mathew Cradock) later married the Emmanuel College Platonist Benjamin Whichcote,Sarah Hutton, 'Whichcote, Benjamin (1609–83), theologian and moral philosopher' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. whose niece married her father's friend Dr John Worthington (1657).John T. Young, 'Worthington, John (bap. 1617, d. 1671)' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Through her mother's family, Damaris (Lady Masham) was cousin to Zachary Cradock, Provost of Eton (1680–95), and Samuel Cradock, nonconformist tutor of Wickhambrook, Suffolk (both of whom were educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge during the 1640s and 1650s).
Masham's half-sister, Damaris Andrewes (d. 1687), married Edward Abney, a student, graduate, and Fellow of Christ's College (from 1649), who had obtained the higher degree of Doctor of both laws (LL.D) and resigned his Fellowship to marry her (1661).Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses Vol. I Part 1, p. 2. Her half-brother, John Andrewes (d. after 1688), also studied at Christ's College (from 1664) and held a Fellowship there (until c.1675).J. Peile, Biographical Register of Christ's College 1505–1905, I: 1448–1665 (Cambridge University Press, 1910), p. 612 (Internet Archive). Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Vol. I Part 1, p. 30. Her other half-brother, Matthew Andrewes (d. 1674), entered Queens' College, Cambridge (1663/64), and was Fellow there at his death.Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses Vol. I Part 1, p. 30. Will of Mathew Andrewes, Fellow of Queen's College of Cambridge (P.C.C. 1674, Bunce quire). Abstract in H.F. Waters, Genealogical Gleanings in England, with the addition of New Series, A-Anyon Vol. II (Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore 1969), p. 1738. Whilst her brother, Charles Cudworth, who died in India (1684), and for whom Locke observed her tender affection,Locke's letter, in Lord King, The Life of John Locke: With Extracts from His Correspondence, New Edition, 2 Vols (Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, London 1830), II, pp. 16–21 (Google). may have been educated at Trinity College, Cambridge;Peile, Biographical Register II, pp. 49–50, citing Journal entries from Factory Records, Kasinbazar III. See David A. Pailin, 'Cudworth, Ralph (1617–88), theologian and philosopher' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. her other brothers attended Christ's College: John Cudworth (an undergraduate under John Andrewes, and later Fellow and Lecturer in Greek (1672–84)),J. Peile, Biographical Register of Christ's College 1505–1905, Volume II, 1666–1905 (Cambridge University Press 1913), II, p. 46. and Thomas Cudworth.Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses Part I. From the earliest times to 1751, Vol. 1 (1922), pp. 430–31.
Education Although Masham's early life has left no record of formal schooling, the unusual collegiate context of her family environment (and her acquaintance with her father's Platonist circle) gave her advantages and insights in an age when higher education was not normally accessible to women.Frankel, Lois. "Damaris Cudsworth Masham." Vol. 3, in A History of Women Philosophers, 1600–1900 by Mary Ellen Waith (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991.), 73. The claims that she was taught by her father,The claim appears to originate speculatively in George Ballard, Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain (Author, Oxford 1752), pp. 379–88, at p. 379. See a discussion in James G. Buickerood, 'What is it with Damaris, Lady Masham? The Historiography of one early modern woman philosopher', Locke Studies. An Annual Journal of Locke Research 5 (2005), pp. 179–214 ; and a reply by Richard Acworth, 'Cursory Reflections', &c., Locke Studies 6 (2006). or owed the development of her thought especially to John Norris (an early associate with whom she came to differ), are to some extent superfluous: she was an intelligent young woman in a brilliant household of academics embedded in the collegiate life. Damaris herself emphasized the importance of the maternal influence on a child's education.'I.3: "Household Affaires are the Opium of the Soul": Damaris Masham and the Necessity of Women's Poetry', in B. Smith and U. Appelt (eds), Write or be Written: Early Modern Women Poets and Cultural Constraints (Routledge, Abingdon 2016), at pp. 83 ff (Google).
As a young woman, Masham began a correspondence with John Locke. Her early letters show that she was experienced in philosophical discourse, capable in discussion of her father's Platonist views and having knowledge of many Platonist works.Frankel, A History of Women Philosophers, 1600–1900, 73–74. By 1682, she was well-read in contemporary philosophy. This was despite a certain weakness of eyesight which affected her ability to read as copiously as she wished. There is no medical record for this: John Norris referred to her 'blindness' in his Reflections upon the Conduct of Human Life (1690),Jaqueline Broad. "Damaris Masham." In Women Philosophers of the Seventeenth Century, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 138. but this was a statement which she, herself, contradicted and corrected him upon.Buickerood, Locke Studies 5 (2005), at pp. 191–93, citing letter of Masham to Jean le Clerc of 18 June 1703, Universitseitbibliotheek, Amsterdam, MS J.58v. John Locke also referred to her sight in correspondence with Philip van Limborch.Frankel, A History of Women Philosophers, 1600–1900, 73–74; but see Buickerood, p. 193. Her scholarly calling, itself unusual for a woman in her time, was achieved in spite of this weakness.
Marriage (1685), motherhood (1686)
In 1685, Damaris Cudworth (aged 26) married Sir Francis Masham, 3rd Baronet (c.1646–1723),M. Knights, 'Masham, Sir Francis, 3rd Bt. (c. 1646–1723), of Otes, High Laver, Essex', in D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks and S. Handley (eds), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690–1715 (Boydell & Brewer, 2002) Read here. of the Manor of Oates in High Laver in the county of Essex (she was thereafter styled Lady Masham). Sir Francis was a widower, and had eight children with his late wife, Mary Scott, including the courtier Samuel, 1st Lord Masham (1678/9–1758)). About a year after their marriage, Lord and Lady Masham had their only child together, Francis Cudworth Masham (1686–1731).Sarah Hutton, "Lady Damaris Masham." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (March 2014). http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/lady-masham. The marriage provided Lady Masham security, and the household came to accommodate Lady Masham's widowed mother, following her father's death in 1688. He left her such of the English books from his library as she should choose.Will of Ralph Cudworth, Doctor of Divinity (P.C.C. 1688). Her mother maintained close connections with her daughter's household and, when she died (1695),Her epitaph (monumental inscription in High Laver church) was reputedly written by John Locke, see H.R. Fox Bourne, The Life of John Locke, 2 Vols (Harper & Brothers, New York 1876), II, pp. 306–07. she made extensive provision for her daughter and appointed John Locke, Edward Clarke and Bishop Edward Fowler (her executor) as trustees for the future welfare of her grandson, Francis Cudworth MashamWill of Damaris Cudworth (P.C.C. 1695). (who later became Accountant-General to the Court of Chancery).
Correspondence and publications