[1][2] Her father was doctor to both King Charles II and Queen consort Catherine of Braganza, having converted to Roman Catholicism.

[1][4] These include a miniature of her ten year-old son Abraham da Costa which is now owned by the Jewish Museum.

[5][6][7] Da Costa was well-regarded as a painter and also impressed Voltaire with her wit when he visited London in the mid-1720s.

[1][8] He recorded an exchangea between her and a priest in his notebooks: Madame Acosta [sic] said in my presence to a cleric hoping to convert her to Christianity: Catherina da Costa died on 11 December 1756 and was buried in the Mile End Jewish cemetery.

Her son Abraham inherited her artworks and some are now owned by the Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam.