The family was reduced to poor circumstances through her father's speculations,[1] and Abigail was forced to work as a servant for Sir John Rivers of Kent.

Sarah wanted Queen Anne to appoint more Whig ministers, the majority of whom were in favour of the 1st Duke of Marlborough's campaigns in The War Of Spanish Succession.

The Queen, not prepared to abandon the "Church Party" (as the Tories were commonly known, and religion being Anne's chief concern) even for her favourite, confided to her Lord Treasurer, the 1st Earl of Godolphin, that she did not feel that she and Sarah could ever be true friends again.

Sarah then found out that Abigail had, for some time, enjoyed considerable intimacy with her royal mistress, no hint of which had previously reached the Duchess.

Sunderland, Godolphin, and the other Whig ministers were soon dismissed from office, largely through Abigail's influence, to make way for Harley and Bolingbroke.

In 1711, the ministers, intent on bringing about the disgrace of Marlborough and arranging the Peace of Utrecht, found it necessary to secure their position in the House of Lords by creating 12 new peers known as Harley's Dozen.

[4] 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.