Elizabeth Malet was, in 1664, being offered 'for sale' by her stepfather Sir John Warre and her maternal grandfather, Lord Hawley. She was considered to be one of the most eligible heiresses in England, owner of Enmore and its Castle in Somerset, an income of more than £2500 a year, and was being wooed by, amongst others, Lord Sandwich's son, Viscount Hinchinbrooke and the Duke of Ormond's son, Lord John Butler. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, had been lobbying Charles II on his behalf for her hand, although despite his courtier status and income, he was one of the poorest peers in the land. On the 26th of May, 1665 , after Elizabeth had dined at Whitehall with her grandfather, their coach was set upon by armed men under the pay of Rochester, and the heiress was transferred to a coach with two women in it waiting to receive her and she was driven out of London. The next day a warrant was issued for Rochester's arrest, and he was found and confined to the Tower. He stayed in the Tower while the plague ravaged the London populace, til about June 19. This should have effectively ended Rochester's chances for marriage with Elizabeth.

Rochester, in June, took part in a naval engagement in Bergen, Norway under the command of Lord Sandwich. It was a resounding failure, but Rochester acquitted himself well. In August Sandwich's fleet captured much of the Dutch fleet on its way back from Bergen. In September, John Wilmot returned to London at the height of the plague. Court had been moved to Oxford, and on October 31 he received £750 from the King, and in February 1666 he was made a Gentleman of the Bedchamber, which carried an additional £1000 a year. In September 1666 Elizabeth was reported to have no suitors, negotiations with her crusty guardians having been broken off. Suddenly, on Jan 29, 1667 she and Rochester were married.

He spent much of their married life at court, drunk, engaged in notorious affairs with both court women and common prostitutes, while Elizabeth tended Enmore, or resided at Adderbury. His affair with the actress Elizabeth Barry led to a child. He seemed to have spent summers with his family, and some of the rest of his time at Ditchley Park or the Ranger's Lodge at Woodstock, near Spelsbury in Oxfordshire, where many of his notorious escapades occurred. Elizabeth and the children spent their time at Enmore or at Adderbury (now an old folks home). The four children were born in quick succession, and Wilmot doted on them, though he didn't seem to have spent much of his remaining time with them. He lived for only thirteen years after the marriage, Elizabeth for fourteen.

Their son Charles lived 10 or ll years. Anne, their eldest married first Sir Henry Baynton, and then Francis Greville, son and heir of Fulke Greville of Warwick Castle. Elizabeth married Edward Montagu, Earl of Sandwich, son of her mother's suitor. Thomas Hearne reported, "I cannot learn anything of Woodstock people about the Lady Mallet, what sort of person she was, any further than that she was not so handsome as the other two; but I find by the Peerage of England that she was married to (John) Vaughan, Baron Lisburne, in Ireland." Mallet was Diana Spencer's 7th grandmother, and ancestor of the present Prince of Wales.