Background
Wilmot was born in Drogheda, County Louth, to Edward and Martha Wilmot (née Moore). She was the eldest daughter of six daughters and three sons. Her father was the port surveyor in Drogheda, but has previously served as army captain in the 40th Regiment of Foot.
Career
He was transferred to a similar post in County Cork in 1775, where Wilmot was raised. The family settled in Glanmire, near the seat of the Earl of Mountcashell in Moore Park. Wilmot was friendly with Lady Mountcashell, formerly Margaret King, an early and eager pupil of Mary Wollstonecraft.
Her letters from the time survive, in France from November 1801 to October 1802, and in Italy until July 1803.
She also met the French diplomat and politician Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, and the Irish republican Robert Emmet fleetingly. In Rome she recounts her meeting with the English aristocrat Frederick Augustus Hervey, and her audience with the Pope, Pius VII. Wilmot returned to London from Italy in October 1803, via Germany and Denmark, after England and France resumed hostilities.
Martha was living at the Princess"s estate in Troitskoe. Katherine Wilmot arrived on 4 August 1805, having set out from Cork on 5 June.
Wilmot"s writings from this time record the Russian aristocracy"s opulence and attitudes to the servile classes.
The sisters came to know the customs the Russian elite, as well as the festivals and religious rites of the country people. Wilmot left Moscow on 4 July 1807, a combination of passport problems, wars and storms at sea, resulted in delays and in her reaching Yarmouth on 7 September 1807, and returning to Ireland in October 1807. Wilmot moved to France, Moulins, to live in a warmer, drier climate than Ireland.
Her health declined when she moved to Paris, dying there 28 March 1824.
A portrait of Wilmot which was painted in Russia by an unknown artist is known to have been in the possession of Janet Adam, Wilmot"s great-great-great-grand-niece, in 1992.