Susanna Temple

{{Short description|English courtier (1600–1669)}}

File:Cornelius Johnson - Portrait of Susanna Temple, Later Lady Lister - Google Art Project.jpg]]

Susanna Temple, Lady Lister (formerly Thornhurst; 1600-1669) was an English courtier.

A daughter of Alexander Temple of Etchingham and Mary Penistone, nee Mary Sommer or Somers (a daughter of John Somers),R. H. D'Elboux, "Coats of Arms in Queenborough Castle", Archaeologia Cantiana, 58 (London, 1945), pp. 14–15.Elizabeth Askren, 'Susanna Temple Thornhurst Lister', in Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, Jo Eldridge Carney, A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen (Routledge, 2017), pp. 101-102. she is said to have been a maid of honour to Anne of Denmark.James Granger, A Biographical History of England, vol. 1 part 2 (London, 1769), p. 554. However, she is not known to be named in any records of the court.Elizabeth Askren, 'Susanna Temple Thornhurst Lister', in Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, Jo Eldridge Carney, A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen (Routledge, 2017), p. 101.

File:Gheeraerts Susanna Temple, later Lady Lister.jpg

Her portrait was painted by Cornelius Johnson in 1620. She is depicted wearing a drop earring, including a martlet, the bird is part of the Temple coat of arms.James Granger, A Biographical History of England, vol. 1 part 2 (London, 1769), p. 554: Karen Hearn, Cornelius Johnson (Paul Holberton, 2015), pp. 12-13: Karen Hearn, Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England, 1530-1630 (London, 1996), p. 216: Granger says there was a portrait in her wedding costume.

Another portrait was painted in 1621 by an artist working in the manner of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger. There is also a miniature in the manner of Nicholas Hilliard, with her hair down.{{cn|date=December 2022}}

She married Sir Gifford Thornhurst of Agney Court, Kent (d. 1627), the son of William Thornhurst (d. 1606) and Anne Howard, a daughter of Thomas Howard, Viscount Bindon.John Nichols, Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, vol. 1 (London, 1790), p. 104, Herne, Kent. Their daughter Frances, born after the death of Gifford in 1627, and named after one of his sisters, was the mother of Sarah Jennings, Duchess of Marlborough.

In 1626 her sister-in-law Grace Thornhurst (d. 1636) married the poet Mildmay Fane. Her brother-in-law, Thomas Thornhurst wrote a description of Lanzarote.Tom Cain, The Poetry of Mildmay Fane, Second Earl of Westmorland (Manchester, 2001), pp. 11, 417: The inscription at Herne, however, states that Gifford was an only son.

As a widow she was involved in litigation over a debt to Sir John Lambe.John Bruce, Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Charles I: 1631-1633 (London, 1862), p. 496.

Her second husband was Sir Martin Lister of Thorpe Arnold, nephew of Matthew Lister, one of Anne of Denmark's physicians, and friend of Mary Sidney.Anne Marie Roos, The Correspondence of Dr Martin Lister: 1662–1677, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2015), p. 7. Their son Martin Lister became physician to Queen Anne.James Granger, A Biographical History of England, vol. 1 part 2 (London, 1769), p. 554. Some of her letters to Martin at college in Oxford survive.Anna Marie Roos, The Correspondence of Dr Martin Lister: 1662–1677, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2015), p. 141.

She died in 1669.