Elizabeth Wilmot, Countess of Rochester (néeMalet;^{[Notes 1]} 1651 – 20 August 1681) was anEnglish heiress and the wife ofJohn Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, the "libertine". She was the daughter of John Malet, ofEnmore Manor, and Unton Hawley, daughter ofFrancis Hawley, 1st Baron 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 on 26 May 1665 he attempted toabduct her. 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 withMrs. Stewart, and was going home to her lodgings with her grandfather, myLord Haly, by coach; and was atCharing 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 atUxbridge; 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, myLord 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.^{[Notes 2][2]}

Graham Greene corrects Pepys. He writes about the Heiress of the West.^[3]

Elizabeth Malet later forgave Rochester, and they were married on 29 January 1667.

After the couple married, Rochester spent much of his time in London, where he engaged in public affairs, most famously with the actressElizabeth Barry. Elizabeth Wilmot stayed in his house,Adderbury House inOxfordshire, along with Rochester's motherAnne Wilmot, Countess of Rochester, her mother Elizabeth Hawley, and Rochester's nieces Eleanor and Anne Lee (later the poetAnne Wharton).^[4]

By her husband,John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, Elizabeth Wilmot had four children:

1. Charles Wilmot, 3rd Earl of Rochester (christened 2 January 1670/71 – 12 November 1681)
2. LadyAnne Wilmot (christened 30 August 1669 – 8 August 1703^[5]) married firstlyHenry Bayntun, Esq., a country gentleman, by whom she had issue one son and one daughter Anne Bayntun^[6] (mother ofSir Edward Bayntun-Rolt, 1st Baronet).^[7] She married secondly the poet Hon.Francis Greville, MP (1 July 1667 – 11 October 1710), eldest son ofFulke Greville, 5th Baron Brooke of Beauchamps Court, and had two sons, the6th and7th Barons Brooke; the 7th Baron was father ofFrancis Greville, 1st Earl of Warwick.^[8]
3. LadyElizabeth Wilmot (christened 13 July 1674 – 1 July 1757); she married 8 July 1689Edward Montagu, 3rd Earl of Sandwich (10 April 1670 – 20 October 1729), and had issue, one daughter (who died young) and one sonEdward Montagu, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, father ofJohn Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (for whom thesandwich is named). She became renowned for her learning and wit.
4. LadyMalet Wilmot (christened 6 January 1676 – 13 January 1708/9)^[9] marriedJohn Vaughan, 1st Viscount Lisburne on 18 August 1692; their son wasWilmot Vaughan, 3rd Viscount Lisburne, father ofWilmot Vaughan, 1st Earl of Lisburne, ancestor of the present Earl.

Elizabeth Wilmot died in 1681, a little more than a year after her husband, aged 29 or 30. Her son Charles died soon thereafter.

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

In the 2004 movieThe Libertine, Elizabeth was portrayed byRosamund Pike.

• 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 byGermaine Greer, Susan Hastings, Jeslyn Medoff, and Melinda Sansone. New York: The Noonday Press, 1988.

• A description of letters from John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester's mother (some of which concern Eilzabeth Malet Wilmot)
• Elizabeth Malet Wilmot's abduction
• Elizabeth Malet Wilmot's abduction detailed
• Samuel Pepys' description of Elizabeth Malet Wilmot's abduction
• The Perdita Project link to Elizabeth Malet Wilmot's manuscript poetry

• List of kidnappings
• List of solved missing person cases

• 1651 births
• 1681 deaths
• 17th-century English poets
• 17th-century English women
• Formerly missing people
• English countesses by marriage
• English women poets
• Kidnapped English people
• People from Somerset

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