Susannah Arabella Thrale
Susannah Arabella Thrale
Susannah was born on 23 May 1770. She had crooked legs and an umbilical rupture which made her irritable. Because of this she was called Little Crab by the other children and Gilly by her father from a Gilhouter, the Cheshire word signifying an owl.
She was a favourite of Johnson, who in 1777 said "I was always a Suzy, when nobody else was a Suzy". Johnson defended her as being strong and beautiful, against the opinion of her mother. In her diary, Hester Thrale described Susannah as "small, ugly and lean as ever." Susannah was knowledgeable on many things and had a talent for reading elegantly. She was able to speak French and English by age five. As she grew up, she was described by her mother as becoming pretty.
On 20 January 1779, her mother wrote of her in Thraliana …
“My second Daughter Susanna Arabella who will not yet be nine Years old till next May, can at this moment read a French Comedy to divert herself, and these very holy days her Amusement has been to make Sophy & sometimes Hester help her to act the two or three 1 st Scenes of Moliere's Bourgeouis Gentilhomme: add to this that She has a real Taste for English Poetry, and when Mr Johnson repeated some of Dryden's Musick Ode the other day, She said She had got the whole poem & Pope's too upon the same Subject by Heart for her own Amusement.—Her Knowledge of Arithmetick goes no farther than the four Rules, but She has worked a Map of Europe, and has a Comprehensive Knowledge of Geography that would amaze one.”
Susannah Arabella Thrale
In July 1779 - when Susannah was nine - Hester wrote in Thraliana…
“Susan & Sophy are fine Girls, and promise to be a Credit & Comfort to their Parents, neither do I yet see any Disposition in the Eldest that need give one pain.”
On 14 July 1780 Hester wrote in Thraliana…
“Susan is three parts a Beauty, & quite a Scholar for ten Years old: few passages in History or poetry,—I mean English Poetry—are new to her, & She is a Critick in Geography & French”
In January 1781 - when Susannah was eleven - Hester wrote in Thraliana…
“Susan has a surprising turn for Letter writing; her compositions are relly elegant, & She delights—odd enough—in reading Voiture & Sevigné. They both [Susannah and Sophia] have obtained the French Accent very completely , considering they have never been out of England. I should like to treat them to with a run to the Continent”
I was always a Suzy, when nobody else was a Suzy
— Dr. Samuel Johnson
On 17 December of the same year Hester wrote "Susan is already taller than me, & three parts a Beauty". She attended Mrs Stevenson's school in Queens Square, London, and Mrs Cumyns's boarding school in Kensington, London.
In 1790, John Fuller, better known as "Mad Jack" Fuller, proposed marriage but was rebuffed.
In 1832, together with her other sisters, she founded the Thrale Almshouses.
Susannah died on 5 November 1858 aged 88 and was buried at Knockholt Church, Kent and has a monument inside the church. She appears to have remained unmarried.
