 Her interest in philosophy was nurtured by her reading of the Cambridge Platonists (Ralph Cudworth, Henry More and John Smith), with whose works she was familiar by the time she met Locke. It was her good fortune to make his acquaintance, since he certainly encouraged her interest in philosophy. Thus, unlike most women of her time, Damaris Cudworth had the relative advantages of a family and a friendship that enabled her to develop her philosophical interests. On the other hand, her marriage in 1685, to Sir Francis Masham, an Essex squire and widower with nine children, was hardly one that enhanced her opportunities to pursue philosophy. She had one son, Francis Cudworth Masham. Damaris Masham’s philosophical writings constitute only a small part of her philosophical activity. Her surviving correspondence, especially with Locke and with Leibniz show that her interest in philosophy went far beyond what she published. Her two books, A Discourse Concerning the Love of God (1696) and Occasional Thoughts in Reference to a Vertuous or Christian Life (1705), were printed anonymously, and with encouragement from Locke. She also wrote a biography of Locke which is the source of the first printed biographies of Locke.