Lister [married name Knowler], Susanna (bap. 1670, d. 1738), natural history illustrator, and her sister Anne Lister (1671–1695x1704), who worked with her, were the first and second of the eight children of Martin Lister (bap. 1639, d. 1712), physician and naturalist, and his wife, Hannah (1645–1695), daughter of Thomas Parkinson (1607–1671) of Carleton in Craven and his wife, Anne. Susanna was born at Carleton Hall and baptized on 9 June 1670, while Anne (Nancy to her family) was born on 13 October 1671 at her father's house 'without Micklegate Bar' at York. The sisters began to draw and paint as children. On his way to France in July 1681, Lister wrote to his wife:

I did send home a box of colour in oil for Susan and Nancy to paint with. As for the pencils sent with them, and the colours in shells, which are for limning, I would have thee lock them carefully up, till I return, for they know not yet the use of them.

Goulding, 342

Susan and Nancy were then eleven and nine years old. Before long, they were drawing and painting pictures of their father's growing shell collection.

In 1684 the family moved to London and, in the following year, Lister published a collection of plates depicting exotic land shells (De cochleis, 1685). Monograms (SL and AL 'pni.') on the title page indicate that the pictures were painted by Susanna and Anne, although the plates were probably engraved by William Lodge (1649–1689), who had illustrated Lister's first book, on spiders and molluscs (Keynes, 28). None the less, plates published that year in the Philosophical Transactions are signed 'SL sculp.', indicating that fifteen-year-old Susanna was already mastering the craft. Meanwhile, the family embarked on a project, to prepare an illustrated catalogue of all known shells, that was to occupy them for another ten years. Martin Lister amassed a collection, borrowed from others, and prepared a classification system. The two sisters drew and painted illustrations and engraved them on copper plates, with their father's terse Latin descriptions. The Historia conchyliorum was divided into four sections, the title-pages of which bear the consecutive dates 1685 to 1688, and the footnote 'Susanna et Anna Lister figuras delinearunt' (or variations of the same). Each was continually revised and reissued, and the final version, with 1062 plates, was not complete until 1697. In 1692 Edward Lhwyd wrote to Lister 'I do not wonder your workw[omen] begin to be tired, you have held them so long to it' (Gunther, 155).

Many of the sisters' original pencil and watercolour drawings exist (Bodl. Oxf., MS Lister 9) and some are signed, as are a few of their engravings. Their styles differ, especially in the representation of cast shadows; Anne (whether painting or engraving) used bold parallel lines of graduated thickness, while Susanna used washes or cross-hatching. 'The plates are executed with great fidelity and spirit, and bear testimony to the extraordinary talents and industry of the artists' (Davies, 308). Their father published no further descriptive works, and no later work of either woman is known.

In 1706 or 1707 Susanna married Gilbert Knowler (1663–1730) of Herne, to become his third wife and mother of Susanna (1708–1768), her only child, who was married at Canterbury Cathedral in 1730 to William Bedford (1702–1783), rector of Bekesbourne. Susanna died at Bekesbourne on 8 March 1738, and was buried beside her husband at Herne on 15 March. Nothing more is known about Anne Lister. Only two of her brothers and sisters had died by 1695, so she was still alive when her mother's memorial tablet recorded 'six children in teares'. However, when her father made his will in 1704 he named only five, and she was not among them.

The Historia conchyliorum, reprinted in 1770 and 1830, was a major reference work for which Martin Lister was renowned as 'the father of British testaceology' (Maton and Rackett, 138). These authors also bear testimony to the part played by Susanna and Anne Lister, 'whose names deserve to descend to posterity with their father's, and whose truly meritorious industry and ingenuity are patterns for their sex' (ibid., 141).