Who was Elizabeth Marchant de Saint-Michel?

Elizabeth Marchant de Saint-Michel was the wife of the English diarist and naval administrator Samuel Pepys. She was the daughter of a French Huguenot refugee and married Pepys in December 1655 when she was 15 years old.1

In his famous Diary, Pepys reflected on their early years of marriage, noting that she was a "penniless beauty" who performed domestic chores, such as washing his clothes and tending to coal fires, while they lived in a small room at the lodgings of his cousin, Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich. Pepys expressed deep affection and admiration for her, acknowledging the humble beginnings they shared before his rise to prominence in the navy office.1