Elizabeth Wilmot, Countess of Rochester

Elizabeth Wilmot, Countess of Rochester (1651 - 20 August, 1681) was born Elizabeth Malet [The name Malet is at times spelled Mallet or even Mallett. Malet is "The oldest recorded use of the Malet/Mallet/Mallett surname in England is associated with William Malet, Sire de Graville, a Norman who was a companion of William the Conqueror at the battle of Hastings in 1066." [http://www.mallettfamilyhistory.org/general/gip00002.htm Mallet family history] Accessed May 6, 2007 ] the daughter of John Malet of Enmore Castle and Unton Hawley.

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester became infatuated with Elizabeth Malet and asked for her hand in marriage. She refused to marry the earl, and he attempted to abduct her on 26 May, 1665. In his diaries, Samuel Pepys describes Elizabeth Malet as the "great beauty and fortune of the North" and notes the scandal of her kidnapping by Rochester:

Thence to my Lady Sandwich’s, where, to my shame, I had not been a great while before. Here, upon my telling her a story of my Lord Rochester’s running away on Friday night last with Mrs. Mallett, the great beauty and fortune of the North, who had supped at White Hall with Mrs. Stewart, and was going home to her lodgings with her grandfather, my Lord Haly, by coach; and was at Charing Cross seized on by both horse and foot men, and forcibly taken from him, and put into a coach with six horses, and two women provided to receive her, and carried away. Upon immediate pursuit, my Lord of Rochester (for whom the King had spoke to the lady often, but with no successe) was taken at Uxbridge; but the lady is not yet heard of, and the King mighty angry, and the Lord sent to the Tower. Hereupon my Lady did confess to me, as a great secret, her being concerned in this story. For if this match breaks between my Lord Rochester and her, then, by the consent of all her friends, my Lord Hinchingbroke stands fair, and is invited for her. She is worth, and will be at her mother’s death (who keeps but a little from her), 2500l. per annum. [See the diary of Samuel Pepys, entry for Sunday 28 May 1665, available online at [http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1665/05/28/] ]

Elizabeth Malet later forgave Rochester, and they were married on 29 January, 1667 against her father's wishes.

After the couple married, Rochester spent much of his time in London, where he engaged in public affairs, most famously with the actress Elizabeth Barry. Elizabeth Wilmot stayed in his house at Adderbury in Oxfordshire along with Rochester’s mother Anne Wilmot, Countess of Rochester, her mother Elizabeth Hawley, and Rochester’s nieces Eleanor and Anne Lee (later the poet Anne Wharton). [Biographical information from the entry on Wilmot in "Kissing the Rod", edited by Germaine Greer, Susan Hastings, Jeslyn Medoff, and Melinda Sansone.]

Elizabeth Wilmot died in 1681, only a few months after her husband.

The couple had three daughters and a son. Their son died shortly after Elizabeth Wilmot. Of their daughters, Anne went on to marry first Henry Baynton and then the poet Francis Greville. Elizabeth married Edward Montagu and became renowned for her learning and wit.

Elizabeth Wilmot's poetry survives in a manuscript that she and her husband produced together. The manuscript, now held by the University of Nottingham, includes songs and a fragment of a pastoral attributed to Elizabeth Wilmot, some of which has been anthologized in "Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women's Verse".

Children

John and Elizabeth had four children:
# Charles Wilmot, 3rd Earl of Rochester (Christened 2 January, 1670/71 – 12 November, 1681)
# Anne Wilmot
# Elizabeth Wilmot (Christened 13 July, 1674 – 1 July, 1757)
# Malet Wilmot [ [http://www.familysearch.org/ familysearch.org] has the christening and death of Malet Wilmot as 1675 and 1708 Accessed May 30, 2007] [ Johnson has Malet Wilmot's christening and death as 1676 and 1709. Johnson, James William. "A Profane Wit: The Life of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester." Rochester, NY, U.S.: University of Rochester Press, 2004.] (Christened 6 January, 1676 – 13 January, 1709)

References

* Johnson, James William. "A Profane Wit: The Life of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester." Rochester, NY, U.S.: University of Rochester Press, 2004.

* "Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women's Verse". Edited by Germaine Greer, Susan Hastings, Jeslyn Medoff, and Melinda Sansone. New York: The Noonday Press, 1988.

Note

External links

Elizabeth Malet Wilmot's abduction [http://www.luminarium.org/eightlit/rochester/wilmotbio.htm]

Elizabeth Malet Wilmot's abduction detailed [http://www.geocities.com/clayton_veale/elizabeth.html]

Samuel Pepys's description of Elizabeth Malet Wilmot's abduction [http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1665/05/28/index.php]

The Perdita Project link to Elizabeth Malet Wilmot's manuscript poetry [http://human.ntu.ac.uk/research/perdita/frames/html/index.htm]

A description of letters from John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester's mother (some of which concern Eilzabeth Malet Wilmot) [http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=3501]