Elizabeth Clinton, Countess of Lincoln


Elizabeth Clinton, Countess of Lincoln, formerly Elizabeth Knyvet, was an English noblewoman and writer who was Countess of Lincoln from 1616 until the death of her husband Thomas Clinton, 3rd Earl of Lincoln, in 1619, when she became Dowager Countess.
Elizabeth was the younger daughter and co-heiress of Sir Henry Knyvet, MP, and his first wife Elizabeth; her maternal grandfather was a merchant, Sir James Stumpe. She married the future earl on 21 September 1584. They had 18 children, including:
In 1622, Elizabeth produced The Countess of Lincoln's Nursery, an advisory pamphlet which was dedicated to her daughter-in-law, Bridget. It drew on the dowager's own experience as a mother, and praised the young countess for deciding to breast-feed her own children, something Elizabeth had not done and much regretted. The physician and author Thomas Lodge wrote a preface to the book, in which he praised the dowager countess's work for its conciseness and for tackling a hitherto little-addressed topic.