Stories of the Silliman Family

Research Notes Compilation- under construction and subject to further review

This page is an exploration of the Silliman ancestry of Reuben Revilo “Henry” Brown aka Charles Adams, viz descending from Daniel Silliman “The Colonist” and Peaceable Eggledon’s eldest son Daniel Silliman Jnr and his wife Abigail Ogden ( see Eggledon-Eggleston/page and Ogden page for more on Peaceable’s family connections and Abigail’s family respectively). It is an ongoing work in progress, which is subject to review as more information comes to light. The research is covered in the following sections

  • Introduction
  • Thoughts on the origins of the Silliman family in Europe prior to arriving in North America
  • Journeying from Europe to America
  • Silliman Family in America
  • References to Daniel Silliman and Peaceable Eggledon’s Descendants
  • Proposed Silliman family tree
  • Lingering Unanswered Questions on our Silliman Family’s History
  • Other Sources

Introduction

The Silliman family ancestral line links into our Brown family via the Gregory and Sherwood lines. More our branch of the Silliman family descemdamts  past Mary Silliman and Samuel Gregory can be found on the respective Gregory, Sherwood and Brown pages. The Silliman family were long associated with Fairfield Connecticut as documented in “Fairfield, ancient and modern; a brief account, historic and descriptive, of a famous Connecticut town, prepared in commemoration of the two hundred and seventieth anniversary of the town’s settlement, by Frank Samuel Child” via The Hathi Trust.  Much of what has been written about the Sillliman family in the  17th – 18th Centuries focuses on Daniel Silliman’s son Robert and Robert’s descendants. Less has been written about Robert’s brother Daniel Silliman Jnr and his descendants.

Discovering the origins of our Silliman ancestors prior to Daniel Silliman’s arrival in Connecticut in the 1650’s has been one of the bigger challenges of tracing the ancestry of Reuben Revilo “Henry” Brown aka Charles Adams. Some have referred to this first Daniel Silliman in North America as Daniel Silliman the Colonist. Sources such as AmericanAncestors.org and FamilySearch along with others such as Ancestry.com have proved very helpful and informative – though other sources are indicated throughout this page. Researching the Sillliman family’s pre-American heritage has proved very different to most of the other ancestral lines of  Reuben Revilo “Henry” Brown aka Charles Adams, which are largely English Puritan/Non-Conformist.

It is likely the Silliman family arrived in North America during the Puritan Great Migration era of 1620 – 1640. As ships’ passenger lists were not always kept for that era, many of the 20,000 people who arrived in the USA in the Puritan Great Migration era are unknown. Robert Charles Anderson began a project on the Puritan Great Migration era in 1988, and Wikitree has a related project for that era. So far Wikitree has nearly 8,000 profiles for the 20,000 who arrived in 1620 – 1640, however  by late 2022  it did not include the Silliman(di) family. References to records indexes have sighted which indicate that a Daniel Silliman arrived from Holland in 1630 – 1632, and it is likely that he would have gone to New Netherland and not to the New England. Thus it is unlikely that Daniel Silliman, later of Fairfield, arrived in New England as part of the Puritan Great Migration of 1620 – 1640.

Silliman family tradition in the USA said that “Claudio Sillimandi was driven in 1517 from Lucca Italy to Switzerland by religious persecution. The descendants resided in Berne and afterward in Geneva, whence they emigrated through Holland to this country (USA) about the middle of the seventeenth century. A worthy pastor of the name, living with his family in Neuchatel, was visited by Prof (Benjamin Snr) Silliman in 1851.” – Obituary for Professor Benjamin Silliman published in 1865  American Journal of Science and Arts.

There is the question of where in the Netherlands could the Sillimandi/Silliman/Sillimans have been?  There was a great deal of conflict in the 16th – 18th Centuries between Roman Catholics,Protestant – Huguenot and Jewish people,. It was the period of lengthy conflict between the Spanish and the Netherlands – the Eighty Years War. During the second half of the 16th Century, many Jews had left Spain and Portugal, and Huguenots left France. Others would leave Antwerp, Bruges and Ghent towards the end of the 16th Century with the arrival of Archduke of Austria Albert VII  and Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia,  (daughter of Phillip II of Spain and also a descendant of John of Gaunt) from Spain to represent Phillip, as the more Catholic Flanders in the south embraced them.

Many of the “escapees”, escaping persecution, went to England and to the Netherlands, especially Amsterdam. Also the Dutch had overtaken the Hanseatic League, as Amsterdam became the hub of the Baltic trade, likewise Hoorn, Dordrecht and Rotterdam prospered.  It was the advent of the VOC – the Dutch East Indies Company, followed by the Dutch West Indies Company – New Netherlands in North America, later called New York State. Amsterdam, especially, flourished in this period as Antwerp, Bruges and Ghent declined. Though towards the 12 Years of Truce from the Netherlands Spanish War, Flanders recovered. Perhaps the Silliman family had been in Amsterdam, prior to leaving for the Americas?

Or did the Silliman family’s origins lie in France – as Silimand? Could  this then have been the origin of the Sillimandi name which is said not to be an Italian name, whereas Sillimand has been a French name?And also had some of the Silliman(d) family gone direct to Geneva from France? Based on my readings so far, I would support the possibility that some of the Silliman family may well have been in Lucca during its Protestant Reformation era, and then perhaps joined family members, perhaps from near Lyon, in Geneva. I don’t believe that a sojourn of  some Silliman family members in Geneva can be dismissed out of hand, as I explain later in this page.

It should also be noted in regard to possible Irish origins for the Silliman family that  this is connected to the Pennsylvannia  branch. Those were still in Ireland c.1700 & believed to have only settled in Pennsylvannia  America by the early decades of the 18th Century). There were also Silliman’s in England and Prussia centuries ago.

While researching Daniel Silliman the Colonist, I came across a colourful legal case in which he was involved – not what you’d expect in a Puritan community like Fairfield Connecticut, New England USA in 1666!

1666 – Daniel Sillamin, husband of Peaceable Eggledon/Iggulden (widow of John Eggledon/Iggulden) was a central figure in the scandal of the Mary Benfield Adultery Case. Daniel seemed to “thumb his nose at authority” and did not appear to live a godly Puritan life. Daniel (Sylleman) was put in prison for a brief period and also in stocks while Mary was whipped naked. Another man was found to be the father of Mary Benfield’s child. John Eddy Silliman transcribed the legal case and reported it in the The Connecticut Nutmegger. Glastonbury, CT: Connecticut Society of Genealogists, 1970-. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009.)  https://www.americanancestors.org/DB59/rd/62287/96/10003290237)

It was not wise to be loose with the tongue in the strict Puritan days of mid 17th Century Fairfield Connecticut as you could find it being used against you as evidence of Witchcraft, as another of our ancestors Mary Staples nee Royce found. She was twice accused of being a witch and yet not found guilty and not executed. On the first occasion, Mary’s accuser was none other than her very powerful neighbor, Roger Ludlow. Ludlow was not only the founder of Fairfield; he was a former deputy governor of the Massachusetts colony, a former deputy governor of the Connecticut colony, a magistrate for the Connecticut colony and the author of Connecticut’s code of laws, adopted in 1650. Although they were next-door neighbors, Mary Staples and Roger Ludlow apparently did not get along.  It seems that Mary Staples was a woman who did not hesitate to speak her mind.  But, being argumentative was not a valued trait for women in the 1600s. Ironically, Mary Staples husband, Thomas Staples, used Ludlow’s own code of laws to defend his wife. Thomas Staples sued Roger Ludlow in 1654 for defaming his wife’s character and endangering her life. Staples won his lawsuit.

Daniel Silliman is portrayed as a man not well respected in Fairfield, disdainful of authority, interacting with Indians and trading with them – in some ways like we would say in Australia ” a typical Aussie larrikin” – flippant and not minding what he said about those in authority. This may well have been a consequence of the years he likely spent in his youth in New Netherlands, now known as New York. New Netherland had evolved as more of a trading community rather a tight knit Protestant Puritan with a focus on Godly living. There was trading in alcohol and guns with Native American Indians was done. Beside Daniel Silliman was of a European Merchant Family – trading with local peoples was undoubtledly part of his heritage. However in the New England Puritan communities of the time, having too close interactions with the Indians could be used as evidence against you, if you were to be accused of witchcraft. Also, while some might have claimed that New Netherland was a Godly community, there are other perspectives “When Willem Kieft arrived as director in 1638, it was already a sort of den of iniquity, full of “mischief and perversity,” where residents were given over to smoking and drinking grog and beer.” – source Charles River Editors. New Amsterdam: The History of the Dutch Settlement Before It Became New York City (p. 2). Charles River Editors. Kindle Edition.”

One can wonder why Daniel Silliman might have left a freer society in New Netherland for the stricter Connecticut and New England, especially when refugees from the Puritan New England were being offered a haven in the more open New Netherland? There were tensions in New Netherland, including a consequence that the West India Company did not seem to enjoy the same wealth that the Dutch East Indies Company generated. And over time, there had been growing dissatisfaction from the  late 1630’s into the 1650’s New Netherland under the leadership of both William Kieft and laterPetrus (Peter) Stuyvessant. So perhaps that could explain Daniel Silliman’s to Connecticut?

Most of the Silliman family history is far less colourful of course – though Reuben Revilo “Henry” Brown aka Charles Adams, aka Daniel’s 6 x great grandson, was likely a serial bigamist – marrying three times in Australia with all wives still alive and no signs of a divorce. Reuben was my American born great great grandfather.

In the 19th Century, Silliman family lore seems to have been that the ancestors had come from Holland to North America. In late 2022, the ship and precise date of the Silliman family’s arrival in the Anericas  is unknown, but a date of 1626 – 1630 had been suggested. Also, Daniel’s father Jacques is claimed to have died in Fairfield Connecticut in 1626, though this is inconsistent with Benjamin Silliman’s memoirs that Daniel Silliman was the first Silliman resident in Fairfield. Besides Fairfield was not founded until 1639.

Thoughts on the origins of the Silliman family in Europe prior to arriving in North America

There is debate as to whether the Silliman(Sillimand -Sillimans – Sillimandi)  family had origins and connections in the following countries – France, Italy, Switzerland and Netherlands. Had they originated in France, then moved to Lucca, Italy, thence to Switzerland and onto Holland before emigrating to America? Or in the move from France had some also gone directly to Switzerland?

It is likely that the Silliman (Sillimand – Sillimans – Silllimandi) family was one of a number of the Transnational Protestant Merchant families who had been near Lyon in the east of France, Lucca in Italy’s north, Geneva in Switzerland not that far from Lyon, and possibly in other European cities eg in Holland, from the late 15th Century. There have been claims and a counter claim about these. Due to a lack of records from those times, a reliance on oral history sources, it does not seem feasible to be able to trace a lineage through such places prior to some of the family’s arrival in America and finally settlement in Fairfield Connecticut. And it is likely that as members of the extended family lived in some of these locations that not all moved through all of the places, eg some remained in Switzerland and others in Holland when a small number sailed to America, believed to have been c.1630.

The sections that follow below are compiled from my research

  • Silliman/Sillimand –  France  – Curiously there appears to have been a father Henri Sillimand, and son Claude Sillimand, born in 1470 and 1499 respectively in  Belmont-Luthézieu, Ain, France, with grandson Daniel Sillimand born in Geneva in 1537. Claude married Louise Chamos and they are believed to have had four children including Daniel. In the 16th Century, Claude and Daniel both became members of the Council of 200 in Geneva.  Belmont-Luthézieu, Ain, France is less than 80kms from Geneva to its east. It is also close to Lyon which was in a Protestant area in the 16th Century near to a provincial site of the St Bartholomew’s Day  massacres of the Protestants in France in 1572 – 1, 2. Subsequently these fleeing French Protestants fled in various directions including to Geneva and Neuchatel in Switzerland  as well as towards Turin in Italy – 3.  Also in her paper,  “Religious Refugees from Lucca in the Sixteenth Century:Political Strategies and Religious Proselytism“, Simonetta Adomi-Braccesi wrote “ a few years later, the establishment of a strong family-national-re-ligious nucleus in the city and the church of Geneva, together with the links that had been maintained with fellow-believers from their home city, both at Lyon and at Lucca, strengthened the desire of the exiles from Lucca who were more sensitive to religious humanism, to spread the new faith insistently in Italy as well..”.
  • It should be noted that Silliman and its spelling variants do not appear in lists of Huguenot surnames. Further,  it appears that some of the Sillimand’s might have already moved to Geneva before the massacres. Additionally it raises the question of whether Silliman began as a French name and was later Italianized before being Americanized? from Sillimand to Sillimandi to Silliman
  • The Brief Flowering of the Protestant Reformation in Italy and Lucca – Lucca was once a Protestant haven in the Italian Reformation era – 1, 2,  – Wikipedia..The Italian Reformation collapsed after only about 70 years of existence because of the quick and energetic reaction of the Catholic Church. In the summer of 1542 the Italian Inquisition reorganized itself in order to fight Protestants in all Italian states more effectively… . . About 1600, almost all Protestantism practically ceased to exist in Italy, with Catholicism remaining the religion of the Italian states. A key question is whether the ancestors of Daniel Silliman of Connecticut had gone from France to Lucca in Italy and from there to Geneva in Switzerland or had they not been in Lucca Italy at all? John Eddy Silliman in his 2015 Nutmegger article , (The Connecticut Nutmegger. Glastonbury, CT: Connecticut Society of Genealogists, 1970-. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009.)  https://www.americanancestors.org/DB59/rd/62287/96/10003290237)) based in part on  his 1993 visit to Lucca including the Church of St Maria della Rosa where he met Monseigneur Ghilarducci, had queried the long held tradition that the Silliman family had been in Lucca prior to going to Geneva. The Monseigneur stated that Lucca was then a walled city and it was not easy for ordinary residents to leave the city at that time, not to mention the absence of records. Given that the era back in the mid 16th Century in Lucca was one of fear of a potential Italian Inquisition, One could hardly expect to find Protestants listed in Catholic Church records. Further in the following sections John Eddy Silliman’s  perspective is shown to be totally at odds with information presented in various articles including a 1997 paper by  Simonetta Adomi-Braccesi “Religious Refugees from Lucca in the Sixteenth Century:Political Strategies and Religious Proselytism“. Curiously Monseigneur Ghilarducci was placed under arrest in 2005  –   “director of the episcopal archive of Lucca and priest of several local parishes, for receiving sacred objects stolen from museums and churches in Rome, Viterbo, Terni, Naples, and other Italian cities. The article listed altar cloths, vestments, kneelers, chalices, and a small marble altar among the hundreds of stolen works of art discovered in the episcopal palace of Lucca and churches in Mons. Ghilarducci’s parishes of Vetriano, Colognora Pescaia and Celle di Puccini. ” – it involved hundreds of items – see also 1. However his reputation seemed to have been restored by the time of his passing in an accident in 2019. The Historical Diocesan archive of Lucca was inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World in 2011 – though by 2018 its documents from the era of the Italian Reformation in Lucca may n ot have been fully studied and reviewed. So  it was possible, that 25 years earlier at the time of John Eddy Silliman’s 1993 visit to Lucca, this material may not have been apparent. (We stayed in Florence in 2010 and did a day trip to Lucca – a beautiful city – my photos are shown below including Lucca’s green walls)
    San Martino Lucca italy
    Lucca’s green walls
  • Silliman – From France to Geneva and via Lucca Italy to Berne and Geneva Switzerland In 1523, the first Protestants, refugees from France, arrived in Geneva, and with them the new theology soon became very popular in what hithertoo had been Catholic Switzerland. For a decade or so there was religious tension in Geneva  until in “1536, the Genevans declared themselves Protestant by taking a public oath of allegiance to the Lutheran faith where all residents took part, and proclaimed their city a republic… .The city became increasingly aristocratic during the 17th century, to the point where it became almost impossible for outsiders to acquire citizenship. The common assembly (Conseil général) became almost powerless, to the benefit of the lesser council (Petit Conseil) and the council of the two-hundred (Conseil des Deux-Cents), which were filled with members of the powerful families in nepotistic appointments. Society was divided between the Citoyens, who were either members of the old patriciate or offsprings of Bourgeois born in Geneva, and had full citizenship, the Bourgeois, who were either naturalized citizens or offsprings of Bourgeois not born in the city, the Natifs, Geneva-born descendants of residents without citizenship, and the mere Habitants, non-citizens permitted residence in exchange for a fee. Finally, Sujets were the population of a number of nearby villages controlled by the city.” – Wikipedia.
  • Apparently the exodus of Protestants from Lucca in the 16th Century had adverse economic impacts that it is even cited in the current Turismo Italy website : “Thanks to merchant contacts with Northern Europe, the city of Lucca welcomed the Protestant Reformation: the presence of “heretics” in almost all the major families of Lucca was tolerated and minimized. But the fear of a crusade by Pope Blessed Florentine urged citizens to a voluntary exile to Geneva and other northern cities. The Republic of Lucca proved decisive in maintaining intact its jurisdiction without interference of the Church fit in and, subsequently, to the establishment of the Inquisition. The exodus of some of the major families of Lucca town impoverished capital, human resources and culture. “
  • An article from the Christian Library  entitled”Francesco Turrettini  1547 – 1628 Pilgrim of Faith” describes the situation thus  “Many of the Lucchesi families emigrated to Lyon. For several centuries, trade had passed through northern Italy to Lyon and finally to Antwerp. Consequently, the families of Lucca had many connections and even relatives in Lyon. After the emigration, the Lucchesi merchants continued to travel through Lyon and would speak with their relatives who had left Lucca. Thus, the Reformed faith continued to spread in Lucca through the travels of the Lucchesi merchants. The Senate of Lucca did not want to ban travel to these places that were so vital to their economy, but they did feel the need to respond, if not out of Roman Catholic piety, at least out of fear of reprisal for their inactivity. They passed a decree on January 9, 1562 that may seem somewhat shocking to modern ears. They declared that all those who had emigrated were rebels of the city and forbade them to live in Italy, Spain, France and its possessions, Flanders, or the Brabant (the last two being modern Belgium and Netherlands). “
  • Robert Baird wrote in 1845 in  “Sketches of Protestantism in Italy Past and Present  – “In the year 1556, some of the best families in Lucca reached Geneva, where their descendants are to be found at this day. Among them were the Micheli, Turretini, Calendrini, Balbani, Diodati, Burlamacchi, and Minutoli, some of whom have attained great distinction, in both Church and State, in that ancient commonwealth. The authorities of Lucca were so enraged at this emigration, that they offered a reward of three hundred crowns to any person who would kill any of them in Italy, France, or Flanders !”
  • See also Thomas McCrie in 1833 “History and Suppression of the Reformation in Italy in the Sixteenth Century“, which described how many  Protestants in Lucca transferred their families and wealth from Lucca to Switzerland and France in 1556, to such a degree that the government offered 300 crowns to kill one of the refugees in France Italy or Flanders. Though in Lucca itself the magistrates long allowed the “culprits” to choose exile up until about the late 1550’s – book review of Simonetta Adomi-Braccesi.
  •  The Simonetta Adomi-Braccesi “Religious Refugees from Lucca in the Sixteenth Century:Political Strategies and Religious Proselytism” paper stated that “During the second half of the 16th century, it gave rise to a continuous religious emigration, whose destination was often Geneva. Besides being fairly conspicuous, this phenomenon was above all characterised by the presence of several members of the ruling class of the city, who, even in exile, maintained close contact with their homeland, and in particular with the merchant communities of citizens of Lucca, all over Europe. They also formed a sort of influential lobby from the religious and economic point of view within the wider Italian refugees in Geneva: it is sufficient to note that the eminent theologian, Giovanni Diodati, who was born at Geneva, still defined himself, at the beginning of the 17th century, as di nation lucchese… When, starting in 1556, the exiles from Lucca became members of the Italian church in Geneva,… A few years later, the establishment of a strong family-national-re-ligious nucleus in the city and the church of Geneva, together with the links that had been maintained with fellow-believers from their home city, both at Lyon and at Lucca, strengthened the desire of the exiles from Lucca who were more sensitive to religious humanism, to spread the new faith insistently in Italy as well…. Thus the years 1555-1556 witnessed the beginning of the exodus from Lucca  religionis causa  of individuals and whole family groups, mainly heading for Geneva. … At the beginning of the 1560’s, the presence of citizens from Lucca at Geneva numbered about fifty households, and thanks to the presence among them of merchants and bankers, they were able to exercise a hegemony within the Italian  refuge and in particular in the  Italian church. After 1555, the exiles from Lucca  religioms causa  were more and more often members of the consistory, in Geneva – of which members of the Silimandi were a part, as follows:
    . 
  • A Claudio/Claudius Sillimandi was recorded in “The Registers of the Consistory of Geneva at the Time of Calvin: Volume 1: 1 July 1531- 30 June 1534 Volume 12 ” – most of the references to Sillimandi relate to property matters. From Amazon regarding another volume of the registers for 1541 – 1542  “reveals what life was like during the Protestant Reformation in a city where ecclesiastical discipline affected many. These valuable primary source documents- the great bulk of which have remained unknown to most modern researchers- are of capital importance for study of this seminal period in church history. Volume 1 records the activity of the Consistory between 1542 and 1544. Arbitration of disputes, surveillance of morals, repression of the vestiges of the Catholic cult, promotion of the Reformed mode of living, resolution of matrimonial cases- this is a general sketch of the Consistory’s work during its earliest days. Rich in details pertaining to daily life and piety in Geneva, these noteworthy historical documents testify to the immense role played by the church in society at the beginning of the Reformation.” Claudio /Claudius Sillimandi, a Merchant and Notary, was also  also recorded in earlier volumes c.1530, and also later volumes from 1534 to 1537 –  Volume 13 July 1 1534 – June 30 1536 & Volume 2 –  1 Janueary – 31 December 1537.  What does this tell us? Well there was indeed a merchant named Claudio/Claudius Sillimandi living in Geneva in the mid 16th Century.
  • Extracts from various Silliman family legends and documents follow: The Silliman family tradition in the USA said that “Claudio Sillimandi was driven in 1517 from Lucca Italy to Switzerland by religious persecution. The descendants resided in Berne and afterward in Geneva, whence they emigrated through Holland to this country (USA) about the middle of the seventeenth century. A worthy pastor of the name, living with his family in Neuchatel, was visited by Prof (Benjamin Snr) Silliman in 1851.” – Source Obituary for Professor Benjamin Silliman published in 1865  American Journal of Science and Arts
  •  Jacques Silliman(di) birth is claimed to have been c.1600, and with his son Daniel also believed to have been born overseas in 1621-1626. Many believe that they were Protestants from Lucca Italy and had been in the Netherlands and Switzerland, and then they have migrated to the New England in America. This was based on information that descendant Professor Benjamin Silliman found in his overseas journeys to Europe in the 19th Century, as explained below. The Lucca connection for the Silliman family was one cited by Professor Benjamin Silliman, in his memoirs which included details of his family, and were incorporated into a Biography “LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN“.  Additionally, in a 2015 Nutmegger article, John Eddy Silliman postulated that Daniel Sillamin had left Geneva after insurrections in Geneva in 1653 – however this is inconsistent with Daniel receiving a land grant in Hartford in 1652. It was also stated that Daniel was born in Berne and was the sixth child in his family. It must be wondered if tensions led to the departure of Daniel Silliman and his parents to the Netherlands ie before 1630? One perspective from the Biographical Record of New Haven  “They have among them the tradition that a member of their family, named Daniel Silliman, who had held a civil office in Berne, left that city for political reasons and went to America about the time of the Puritan emigration from England. There are strong reasons for believing that the first Daniel Silliman of Fairficld was either the emigrant from Berne, or a near relative. In this case Holland may have been a temporary place of sojourn, and at any rate, from Holland he would naturally embark for America, which will perhaps account for the tradition which identifies the progenitor of the Fairfield Sillimans with that country.” – However the 1666 records of Fairfield Connecticut do not align with Daniel Silliman(di) the Colonist being an overly god-fearing man nor someone who respected authority.A Claudio/Claudius Sillimandi was recorded in “The Registers of the Consistory of Geneva at the Time of Calvin: Volume 1: 1 July 1531- 30 June 1534 Volume 12 ” – most of the references to Sillimandi relate to property matters. From Amazon regarding another volume of the registers for 1541 – 1542  “reveals what life was like during the Protestant Reformation in a city where ecclesiastical discipline affected many. These valuable primary source documents- the great bulk of which have remained unknown to most modern researchers- are of capital importance for study of this seminal period in church history. Volume 1 records the activity of the Consistory between 1542 and 1544. Arbitration of disputes, surveillance of morals, repression of the vestiges of the Catholic cult, promotion of the Reformed mode of living, resolution of matrimonial cases- this is a general sketch of the Consistory’s work during its earliest days. Rich in details pertaining to daily life and piety in Geneva, these noteworthy historical documents testify to the immense role played by the church in society at the beginning of the Reformation.” Claudio /Claudius Sillimandi, a Merchant and Notary, was also  also recorded in earlier volumes c.1530, and also later volumes from 1534 to 1537 –  Volume 13 July 1 1534 – June 30 1536 & Volume 2 –  1 Janueary – 31 December 1537.  What does this tell us? Well there was indeed a merchant named Claudio/Claudius Sillimandi living in Geneva in the mid 16th Century.

From Rootsweb – a letter from Louis Fred Volz in 1850-

1 NAME *Daniel /SILLIMAN/
2 GIVN *Daniel 2 SURN SILLIMAN
1 SEX M
1 NOTE May be Sillivant.
2 CONT
2 CONT Sources indicate the Daniel Silliman who married Abigail Cole was
2 CONC another man. -According to "The Descendants and Ancestors of George
2 CONC Hull", Sarah "married (1) probably John Knapp son of Roger Knapp and
2 CONC Elizabeth Dickerson; (2) by 1691 {CAT} Robert Silliman (-1748) son of
2 CONC Daniel Silliman and Abigail Cole." (See p. 58). cited from Stephen
2 CONC Emery's web site.
2 CONT
2 CONT Daniel is said to have come from Holland, but was probably born in
2 CONC Geneva.  According to letters to Benjamin Silliman from a Louis Fred.
2 CONC Volz dated 1850, information about Daniel Silliman was obtained from a
2 CONC Jules Francois Silliman who was Canton of Neufchatel, Cote aux Fees,
2 CONC Switzerland.  According to him, a son named Daniel was born to Jacques
2 CONC (James) Sillimandi on 18 Mar 1621 in Geneva.  It was believed that the
2 CONC family had originally come from Lucca, Italy, but had emigrated in the
2 CONC early 16th century to Geneva for religious reasons.  Jacque was a
2 CONC descendant of Claude Sillimandi, who was the immigrant to Geneva.
2 CONC Family lore claimed that one of the Sillimandi descendents went to
2 CONC Berne and then passed over to America, passing through Holland. (Volz
2 CONC letter)  During the Reformation, a Daniel Sillivant was a member of
2 CONC the council of 12.
2 CONT
2 CONT Daniel was in Fairfield in 1658 and settled at "Holland Place."  He
2 CONC purchased 10 acres of land on the estate of John Eggleston and was
2 CONC later granted 2 1/2 acres at "the wading place."  He was a man of
2 CONC influence, one of the land dividend holders in the town.  His property
2 CONC was divided equally between his wife and sons at his death. (Perry)
2 CONT
2 CONT . . . . .
2 CONT Notes on Sillimandi/Sillimand/Silliman per letter dated March 2, 1850
2 CONC written by Jules Francois Silliman, Cantor of Neufchatel, Cote
2 CONC aux-fies:
2 CONT
2 CONT "I have every reason to believe that the [American branch of the
2 CONC Silliman family] is a branch of the Sillimans or Sillimandi originally
2 CONC from Italy (Lucca) who emigrated at the commencement of the 16th
2 CONC century on account of their religion. One of the descendents of Claude
2 CONC Sillimandi, the first root of our family, must have gone to Bern as my
2 CONC father has often told me, and from there must have passed over [to]
2 CONC America passing through Holland. The cause thereof if I recollect
2 CONC alright, was in consequence of family reverses. Unfortunately, my
2 CONC father, whose memory we honor, left us no precise information on this
2 CONC subject. It would seem that our family fixed their abode at first at
2 CONC Geneva until the commencement of the 17th century, that they settle at
2 CONC Berne, and that they subsequently came and established themselves at
2 CONC Neufchatel. One of my ancestors was a merchant at Berne, now; Daniel
2 CONC Silliman of who Mr. Silliman speaks as of having made a will in 1684
2 CONC and as being probably the first who went to America and the first
2 CONC ancestor known of the family in America, may not have been a near
2 CONC relation of this Silliman of Geneva who was a merchant at Berne and
2 CONC who subsequently came to settle at Neufchatel."
2 CONT
2 CONT The letter further states that Daniel Silliman was born March 28, 1621
2 CONC in Geneva, Switzerland, was the son of Jacques James Sillimandi, whose
2 CONC wife was Marie Calle. His name was found among family papers by Jules
2 CONC Francois Silliman, who stated, "My father being under the necessity of
2 CONC making considerable genealogical researches for the purpose of
2 CONC establishing his right to be a citizen of Geneva, which he was finally
2 CONC enabled to do, left us several extracts for the Registries of Geneva,
2 CONC which are at the service of Mr. Silliman, the Lawyer. We are even in
2 CONC posession of a document by which Mr. Tremblay, Secretary of State at
2 CONC Geneva in 1818 caused to recognize the rights of our family to the
2 CONC citizenship of Geneva."
2 CONT From "History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield", by
2 CONC Jacobus, pg. 562:
2 CONT
2 CONT "Daniel Silliman was involved in the Benfield Case, 1666, and the
2 CONC testimony contains considerable information about him. Gold wrote of
2 CONC him that he had small property, did little labor, and traded with the
2 CONC Indians. George Squire, Jr., testified that, it having been reported
2 CONC that fleet of Dutch and French was coming to New England, Silliman
2 CONC said he "hoped he could get his foot aboard a man of warre once more".
2 CONC This indicates that he served in the Navy in his youth. Probably he
2 CONC was a man of adventurous spirit, and shrewd trader; but the ability
2 CONC that soon characterized the Silliman line seems to have derived
2 CONC largely from the excellent intermarriages with families of mental
2 CONC distinction, notably the Hull and Selleck alliances."
2 CONT
2 CONT Historical note about later Silliman's and Silliman surname origin
2 CONC from "The Connecticut Nutmegger", vol. 23, no. 3, Dec. 1990. pgs.
2 CONC 426-427, who extracted their information from "History of Rensselaer
2 CONC County, New York", Nathaniel B. Sylvester, 1880, pgs. 196-198:
2 CONT
2 CONT
2 CONT SILLIMAN, Daniel (d 1690), from Holland, ca 1630, settled at
2 CONC Fairfield, Conn, where he received a land grant and established
2 CONC "Holland   Hill"; m Peaceable -----, widow of John Eggleton.
2 CONT From "Dictionary of the First Settlers of NE", Vol. II, pg. 60:
2 CONT
2 CONT
2 CONT
2 CONT
1 SOUR @S120@
1 SOUR @S118@
1 BIRT
2 DATE 1625 OR 1626
2 PLAC prob Geneva, Switzerland
2 NOTE or Holland
1 DEAT
2 DATE 1689 OR 1690
2 PLAC Fairfield, Fairfield, CT
1 AFN VQ9Q-RB, 110F-6XP
1 EVEN
2 TYPE inv
2 DATE 2 JAN 1690/91
1 FAMS @F799@"

Benjamin Silliman wrote of his great great grandfather Daniel Silliman: Daniel Silliman, the first of the name who settled in Fairfield, was understood in the traditions of the family to have been an emigrant from Holland. Later discoveries, in which Professor Silliman was much interested, indicate that the family was of Italian origin. At the epoch of the Reformation, persons bearing the name of Sillimandi, and professing the Reformed faith, removed from Lucca, in Tuscany, and took refuge in Geneva, then the common resort of persecuted Protestants. Their descendants, who had dropped the terminal syllable di from the name, are now found established in Switzerland. They have among them the tradition that a member of their family named Daniel Silliman, who had held a civil office in Berne, left that city for political reasons, and went to America about the time of the Puritan emigration from England. There are strong reasons for believing that the first Daniel Silliman of Fairfield was either this emigrant from Berne, or a near relative. In this case Holland may have been a place of temporary sojourn, and, at any rate, from Holland he would naturally embarlC for America,which will perhaps account for the tradition connecting the progenitors of the Fairfield Sillimans with that country. The Sillimans of Fairfield were settled from the beginning upon an eminence about two miles from the village of that name, and called, in consequence probably of the reputed origin of Daniel Silliman, Holland Hill.

There is interesting information in the Silliman Family Generations

  • 10th Generation  “Daniel is said to have come from Holland, but was probably born in Geneva. According to letters to Benjamin Silliman from a Louis Fred. Volz dated 1850, information about Daniel Silliman was obtained from a Jules Francois Silliman who was Canton of Neufchatel, Cote aux Fees, Switzerland. According to him, a son named Daniel was born to Jacques (James) Sillimandi on 18 Mar 1621 in Geneva. It was believed that the family had originally come from Lucca, Italy, but had emigrated in the early 16th century to Geneva for religious reasons. Jacque was a descendant of Claude Sillimandi, who was the immigrant to Geneva. Family lore claimed that one of the Sillimandi descendents went to Berne and then passed over to America, passing through Holland. (Volz letter) During the Reformation, a Daniel Sillivant was a member of the council of 12.Daniel was in Fairfield in 1658 and settled at “Holland Place.” He purchased 10 acres of land on the estate of John Eggleston and was later granted 2 1/2 acres at “the wading place.” He was a man of influence, one of the land dividend holders in the town. His property was divided equally between his wife and sons at his death. (Perry). . . . .
  • Notes on Sillimandi/Sillimand/Silliman per letter dated March 2, 1850 written by Jules Francois Silliman, Cantor of Neufchatel, Cote aux-fies:“I have every reason to believe that the [American branch of the Silliman family] is a branch of the Sillimans or Sillimandi originally from Italy (Lucca) who emigrated at the commencement of the 16th century on account of their religion. One of the descendents of Claude Sillimandi, the first root of our family, must have gone to Bern as my father has often told me, and from there must have passed over [to] America passing through Holland. The cause thereof if I recollect alright, was in consequence of family reverses. Unfortunately, my father, whose memory we honor, left us no precise information on this subject. It would seem that our family fixed their abode at first at Geneva until the commencement of the 17th century, that they settle at Berne, and that they subsequently came and established themselves at Neufchatel. One of my ancestors was a merchant at Berne, now; Daniel Silliman of who Mr. Silliman speaks as of having made a will in 1684 and as being probably the first who went to America and the first ancestor known of the family in America, may not have been a near relation of this Silliman of Geneva who was a merchant at Berne and who subsequently came to settle at Neufchatel.”The letter further states that Daniel Silliman was born March 28, 1621 in Geneva, Switzerland, was the son of Jacques James Sillimandi, whose wife was Marie Calle. His name was found among family papers by Jules Francois Silliman, who stated, “My father being under the necessity of making considerable genealogical researches for the purpose of establishing his right to be a citizen of Geneva, which he was finally enabled to do, left us several extracts for the Registries of Geneva, which are at the service of Mr. Silliman, the Lawyer. We are even in posession of a document by which Mr. Tremblay, Secretary of State at Geneva in 1818 caused to recognize the rights of our family to the citizenship of Geneva.”

The biography of Benjamin Silliman Jnr also echoes his father Benjamin Snr’s belief of Italian origins with connections to France: “Of earlier ancestors in this country, the first, Daniel Silliman, settled in Fairfield, Connecticut, establishing his residence upon an eminence still known as Holland Hill, and probably so named from the country from which he is believed to have emigrated to America. The tradition of the family indicates for it an Italian origin, and this is supported by the testimony of families of the same name living in Switzerland and in southern France. ”

  • 9th Generation of Sillimans
  • 8th Generation of Sillimans

Holland (Netherlands). Some believe that Daniel Silliman’s parents married in Utrecht Netherlands in 1623 – ie Jacques Silliman to Marie Caille. There were claims that Marie Caille was born in Haybes, Ardennes, Champagne-Ardenne, France.

There were many baptisms of children of the name Sillimans and its spelling variants from the 17th Century eg 30th August 1665 baptism of  Annetje, daughter of Jacobus Sillimans/Sillemans & Elizabet Jans/Janse in Amsterdam Holland (c.16 65) –  and then her brother Dirck Sillimans in 1670. Annetje’s baptism was conducted in Westerkerk a Reformed Church in Dutch Protestant Calvinism in  Amsterdam. Westerkerk was a purpose built Reform church with its construction dating between 1620 and 1631. It was consecrated in 1631 and is noted as the burial place of Rembrandt van Rijn in 1669. Westerkerk is the biggest and most important Protestant Church in Amsterdam – see Amsterdam Info.com. See also  Archives of the Registry Office: baptismal, marriage and burial records of Amsterdam (retro acts of the Registry Office) 1553 – 1811 – Amsterdam City Archives.

‘Adding to the debates of whether or not the Silliman’s had been in Lucca is another question. Perusing all of this information, especially in regard to Swiss connections, raises the question as to whether the father of Daniel Silliman the Colonist of Fairfield was named Daniel Silliman or Jacques Silliman?

Journeying from Europe to America

The Connecticut Silliman family tradition, that their Silliman ancestor(s), Daniel Silliman, had emigrated to the USA from the Netherlands, seems plausible based on the following record extracts and references. However there is the issue of  of claims that Daniel’s father Jacques had died in Fairfield Connecticut in 1626 – though there is no record found to support this family lore. Additionally, Fairfield was not founded until 1639. Further, Daniel Silleman’s death record in FindMyPast states that he died at Holland Hill in Fairfield Connecticut – the farm reputedly so named because of the family’s origins in Holland prior to emigration to the USA. (1, )

Daniel Silliman’s record in FindMyPast Transatlantic Migration Indexes – indicates that he had Silliman arrived from the Netherlands in 1630, and also immigration records from Gale in MyHeritage. Was this Daniel Silliman the Colonist of Fairfield ? To be honest it would be surprising to see such an entry for boy of no more than 9 years old – and it does raise the issue of whether this entry might refer to a potential father of  Fairfield’s Daniel Silliman the Colonist, ie raising the question as to whether the father of Daniel Silliman the Colonist of Fairfield was named Daniel Silliman or Jacques Silliman? ? Adding to the debates of whether or not the Silliman’s had been in Lucca is another question.

First name(s) Daniel
Last name Silliman
Sex Male
Migration year 1630
Death year 1690
Principal’s first name(s) Daniel
Principal’s last name Silliman
Relationship Principal
Spouse’s first name(s) Peaceable
Spouse’s last name Silliman
Event type Emigration
Event year 1630
Event place Holland
Event type 2 Residence
Event place 2 Fairfield, Conn
Event type 3 Will
Event place 3 Holland Hill
Event type 4 Death
Event year 4 1690
State –
Country United States
Title Immigrant Ancestors Before 1750
Author Virkus
Collection United States, Transatlantic Migration
Record set United States, Transatlantic Migration Indexes
Category Travel & migration
Subcategory Migration
Collections from Americas, United States

At MyHeritage, there are Gale Records from its  Passenger and Immigration Lists Index referencing that Daniel Silliman was in Fairfield Connecticut or Connecticut in 1630 and 1632. There are also similar references in Ancestry.com. Additonally “Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)” – available in SLNSW and a future task is to source and read this book. See FamilySearch reference to this book,  known as the Filby book(s).

Unfortunately the First Settlers website does not seem to include Dutch ships. However, given that there are immigration records which indicated that Daniel Silliman had sailed from Holland, then these raise the question that had the Silliman sailed in a Dutch ship? What ship(s) might have been sailing to the North Americas c.1630?

In 1623, 31 families including some Walloon, had embarked in the first colonizing ship, the New Netherland, to make homes and begin the settlement of the Empire State. At that time these colonists were said by some to stand for pure family life, for the Church and the school, and for farming, whereas others would argue “that religion never played an important role in New Netherland,since the colony was built upon commerce and economic considerations… The prevailing perceptionhas been that New Netherland began as an economically driven extractive ventureaimed at the lucrative fur trade; and that settlement of the colony was reluctantlypursued only as a means of securing the Dutch West India Company’s claim to theregion, and ultimately its monopoly of the region’s fur trade. ” (Karen Venetia Dissertation Thesis). These would be followed by those who aspired to be Patroons in December, 1630, in the Walvisch,  The Endracht is also known to have made voyages to New Netherland in 1630 and 1632. On the latter voyage, the Endracht struck bad weather around Plymouth and was captured by the English authorities there.

There are small lists of Endracht’s passengers on the Olive Tree website – but Silliman is not mentioned. The Packrat web site does mention 1630’s arrivals for Endracht but the names do not include Silliman. The Digital Resources Netherlands and Belgium website  does include Endracht. See also Rensselaer NYgen website, ( Barbara Hill emailed to say,”I believe the information on your website comes from a book by Arnold Johan Ferdinand [Van Laer] entitled Settlers of Rensselaerswyck, 1630-1658.”)  which includes Endracht,  and also Soutberg for which there are sailings to New Amsterdam listed from 1632, as well as sailings of the Rensselaerswyck from 1636, den Harinck from 1637, den Calmer Sleutel from 1637, het Wapen van Noorwegen from 1638, de Liefde from 1638, den Waterhondt  from 1640 and den Eyckenboom in 1641. Perusing the Rensselaer NYgen website shows only one ship in 1630 and if the Filby list is used then perhaps the Endracht is so far the most likely candidate ship to have brought the Silliman family to the Americas, assuming that they had left from the Netherlands in 1630.

Rensselaer is still a part of today’s New York, and it was under Dutch control until 1609 – from Wikipedia “Settlement occurred at least as early as 1628. By 1642, there was a brewery and many farms, also a ferry was established by Hendrick Albertsen running from the mouth of Beaver Creek in Beverwyck (Albany) to the future Rensselaer“. See also Ancestry, FamilySearch, History of Renssleaer, Legends of America, American History, New Amsterdam on Wikipedia , also New Netherland on Wikipedia, , Dutch West India Company,  & coins.nd.edu “By 1630 the total population of New Netherland was about 300, many being French-speaking Walloons. It is estimated about 270 lived in the area surrounding Fort Amsterdam, primarily working as farmers, while about 30 were at Fort Orange, the center of the Hudson valley fur trade with the Mohawks.” There were also French speaking Walloons who emigrated to New Netherland from 1623 – see Genealogy Magazine.

It would seem worth noting that the Endracht sailed from Texel to New Amsterdam New Netherlands, which would later be known as New York.  Texel has been Amsterdam’s ocean port for centuries. Another question – could the Silliman family have been in the Dutch areas of North America before Connecticut ? Records show that Daniel Silliman was associated with Connecticut from the 1650’s?New Amsterdam – New Netherland – New York

Although, later there would be conflicts between Dutch and English over New Netherland/New York, there were a lot of English in New Netherland in the 1640’s-  “By the year 1642 the English were so numerous in New Amsterdam that the appointment of an official interpreter became necessary; and that officer also was required to serve as an intermediary between the Dutch merchants and the English ship masters who broke the voyage between New England and the Virginia plantations by stopping here for a bit of trade. It was for the accommodation of such wayfarers that the City Tavern, which later became the Stadt Huys, was built, facing Coenties Slip, in the year 1642″…. 

and further…  “By the year 1635 a considerable commerce was carried on between New Netherland and New England, of which the less important part was direct, and the ore important part was the carriage of tobacco and salt from Virginian and West Indian ports to Boston. The suggestive fact also is recorded that in the year 1637 a Dutch ship sailing direct from the Texel landed in Boston a cargo of sheep and oxen and Flanders mares. Naturally, the English did not take kindly to such commercial undercutting; and all the more naturally because the Dutch stiffly refused to permit English traders to come upon their own colonial preserves.” – Janvier, Thomas A.. The Dutch Founding of New York (p. 50). Kindle Edition.

New Netherland was more of a multi national melting pot colony than New England in the 1640’s “According to a Jesuit priest who passed through in 1643, New Amsterdam had speakers of no fewer than 18 different languages, and half of the population of New Netherland may have been non-Dutch.  Along with the previously mentioned Walloons, many residents were Germans and French Huguenots, and a fair number were Scandinavians.  Around the mid-17th century, the first Jews arrived in New Amsterdam from Brazil, becoming the earliest Jews in any of the colonies that would go on to become states in the United States…..in its diverse makeup, New Amsterdam had resembled Old Amsterdam, which was a city renowned for its tolerance of different religions, but Stuyvesant’s hard-nosed Calvinism made him intolerant of other religions; he attempted to outlaw all but his own, and to expel Jews who arrived in the 1650s. The West India Company, however, forced him to reverse his decree: the Company was interested in harvesting the wealth and services such new immigrants could provide.” –” – Charles River Editors. New Amsterdam: The History of the Dutch Settlement Before It Became New York City (p. 42). Charles River Editors. Kindle Edition.

Among the English in New Netherland in the 1640’s were John Ogden and his nephew Richard Ogden, father of Daniel Silliman’s future granddaughter in law – wife to be of his son Daniel Silliman Jnr, as follows “The building contract with Willem Kieft, governor of New Netherland read in part: Contract of John and Richard Ogden of Stamford, Connecticut, to build a church of stone, seventy-two feet long, fifty-four feet wide, sixteen feet high above the ground, all properly finished, at Fort Amsterdam… the sum of twenty- five hundred guilders,”- Wikitree. See also Stories of the Ogden Family page on this website.

Aside from these two books just mentioned, there are a number of other books on the history of New Netherland, each with different shades of the history of New Netherland:

  • FORT AMSTERDAM IN THE DAYS OF THE DUTCH – Goodwin, Maud Wilder. 1897. G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS. Kindle Edition.
  • DUTCH AND ENGLISH ON THE HUDSON A CHRONICLE OF COLONIAL NEW YORK BY MAUD WILDER GOODWIN NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1921
  • THE STORY OF NEW NETHERLAND THE DUTCH IN AMERICA – Griffis, William E.. The Story of New Netherland: The Dutch in America . 1909 Houghton Mifflin Company. Kindle Edition.

Silliman Family in America

It is possible that the Silliman family arrived in North America during the Puritan Great Migration era of 1620 – 1640. As noted above, ships’ passenger lists were not always kept for that era, so many of the 20,000 people who arrived in the USA in the Puritan Great Migration era are unknown. Efforts have been made by Robert Charles Anderson on the Puritan Great Migration era Project from 1988, and Wikitree has a related project for that era. And as noted earlier the Silliman’s may well have gone to New Netherlands and so would not be part of the Puritan Great Migration Study, though some of the descendants would have been due to other ancestral lines.

The website of the Holland Hill School of Fairfield Connecticut claims that Daniel Silliman emigrated to the USA in 1658 – however this is inconsistent with Daniel Silliman’s record in FindMyPast Transatlantic Migration Indexes and with immigration records from Gale in MyHeritage,as noted above.

Further, there are land grant records for Daniel Silliman in 1652 and 1654 in Hartford Connecticut. Perhaps it was that Daniel Silliman arrived in Fairfield Connecticut in 1658? The records dating from the mid 17th Century for the Silliman family in the AmericanAncestors.org website are as follows:

1652 – Land grant to Daniel Silleman in Hartford Connecticut – note Hartford is to the north east of Fairfield

Source : Hartford, CT: General Index of Land Records of the Town of Hartford, 1639-1839. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003.) Originally published as: General Index to the Land Records of the Town of Hartford, from the year 1639 to the year 1839. Published and Compiled by Levi Woodhouse, George S. Burnham, and Gordon Roberts [printed by Wiley, Waterman and Eaton], both Hartford, CT., 1873.

1654 – Land grant to Daniel Silleman in Hartford Connecticut – note Hartford is to the north east of Fairfield

Source “Hartford, CT: General Index of Land Records of the Town of Hartford, 1639-1839. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003.) Originally published as: General Index to the Land Records of the Town of Hartford, from the year 1639 to the year 1839. Published and Compiled by Levi Woodhouse, George S. Burnham, and Gordon Roberts [printed by Wiley, Waterman and Eaton], both Hartford, CT., 1873.”

1661 – Daniel Silliman’s marriage to Peaceable Eggledon/Iggulden at Fairfield Connecticut in Torreys New England Marriages – also his second marriage to Hannah Hendricksen in 1684 Fairfield Connecticut. The marriages of his son Daniel to Abigail Ogden c.1684 and of another son Robert Silliman to Sarah Knapp Hull by 1691 are also listed

Source – New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogy

1666 – As note further up this page, Daniel Sillamin, husband of Peaceable Eggledon was a central figure in the scandal of the Mary Benfield Adultery Case.

From “History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield”, by Jacobus, pg. 562:

“Daniel Silliman was involved in the Benfield Case, 1666, and the testimony contains considerable information about him. Gold wrote of him that he had small property, did little labor, and traded with the Indians. George Squire, Jr., testified that, it having been reported that fleet of Dutch and French was coming to New England, Silliman said he “hoped he could get his foot aboard a man of warre once more”. This indicates that he served in the Navy in his youth. Probably he was a man of adventurous spirit, and shrewd trader; but the ability that soon characterized the Silliman line seems to have derived largely from the excellent intermarriages with families of mental distinction, notably the Hull and Selleck alliances.” – see also Seeking My Roots – Genealogy.com

Daniel seemed to “thumb his nose at authority” and did not appear to live a godly Puritan life. Daniel (Sylleman) was put in prison for a brief period and also in stocks while Mary was whipped naked.aniel Silliman is portrayed as a man not well respected in Fairfield, disdainful of authority, interacting with Indians and trading with them – in some ways like we would say in Australia ” a typical Aussie larrikin” – flippant and not minding what he said about those in authority.

When his first wife Peaceable Eggledon died c.1667, Daniel Silliman the Colonist was left to raise their three young sons, Daniel Jnr, Robert and Thomas; as well as Peaceable’s son John Eggledon Jnr, though apparently his stepson was removed from his care. Often a widower in the circumstances that Daniel the Colonist found himself would then find another widow to marry and help him raise his young family. However with the scandal of the Mary Benfield Adultery case, it was unlikely that any young woman from one of the Godly living Puritan families of Fairfield would entertain such a match for their daughters? It would be nearly two decades later when Daniel the Colonist finally remarried in 1684 to Hannah (Braden) Hendricksen. Hannah was widow of Henry Hendricksen, who had died in 1684. There were no children of Daniel’s second marriage.

As an aside it is interesting to note that a Hendrick Hendrickszen was a sponsor of Anna Margariet (Anna Margriet) Claese Van Rosenvelt at her baptism on Aug 29, 1654 at the Reformed Dutch Church of New Amsterdam.  The other sponsor was Margariet Loumans. (see Wikitree and American Ancestors). Anna was a daughter of Claes Matensz van Rosenvelt, the ancestor of President Theodore Roosevelt and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. New Amsterdam, in 1654, was a relatively small community. And so it raises some interesting questions – was Henry Hendricksen born as Hendrick Hendricksen – if so was Henry the same man as the sponsor of the van Rosenvelt child or a close relative – or were there no connections at all? How many men were named Hendricks or Henry Hendricksen in New Netherlands at that time? More research to be  done on the Hendricksen’s – perhaps via the Hendricks Herald? In the Hendricks Genealogy via Hathitrust on pages 517 – 518  there are references to Henry as Hendrick Hendricksen being in Fairfield Connecticut by 1655.   A potentially interesting application of the FAN – FFAN research concept – Friends Associates Neighbours & Family Friends Associates Neighbours?

1663 – 1697 – Daniel Silliman is listed in the Hartford Court Records

Source: Hartford County, CT: Index to Hartford County Court Minutes, Vols. 3-4, 1663-1687, 1697(Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2007). – Hartford County court records begin in June 1663, first as a continuation of the Connecticut Colony court records but then in 1666 as a county court. These records deal mainly with debt and land disputes as well as probate matters,

From “History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield”, by Jacobus, pg. 562:

“Daniel Silliman was involved in the Benfield Case, 1666, and the testimony contains considerable information about him. Gold wrote of him that he had small property, did little labor, and traded with the Indians. George Squire, Jr., testified that, it having been reported that fleet of Dutch and French was coming to New England, Silliman said he “hoped he could get his foot aboard a man of warre once more”. This indicates that he served in the Navy in his youth. Probably he was a man of adventurous spirit, and shrewd trader; but the ability that soon characterized the Silliman line seems to have derived largely from the excellent intermarriages with families of mental distinction, notably the Hull and Selleck alliances.” – see also Seeking My Roots – Genealogy.com

References to Daniel Silliman and Peaceable Eggledon’s Descendants

Regardless of their origins, there are some very distinguished and highly regarded members of the Silliman Family, especially during the American Revolutionary War and also in Academia, eg Yale University.

  • Academia &Politics
  • Agriculture – many of the early Silliman’s had farms in Connecticut
  • Industry
      • Sheldon D Silliman had multiple patents 1959 – 1965
        • Circuit Breaker Control System, Static Time Delay System, Pulse Generators, Remote Signal Systems, Binary Self Checking Supervisory Control System, Semi Conductor Overvoltage Protector for Circuit Breaker for Open Circuited Current Tranformer Secondaries, Monitor System for Circuit Interruptors, Annunciators, Supervisory Control System, Time Delay Circuit, Control Apparatus between Central and Substations (Westinghouse Electic Corporation)
  • Military
      • Captain John Silliman of Fairfield of Second Company Commissioned for the Spanish War – 1740
      • Centennial Commemoration of the Burning of Fairfield
      • General Gold Selleck Silliman was a Patriot and  Commander of Connecticut’s Coastal Militia. He was captured by captured Loyalist Isaac Bunnell, who was married to Jerusha Sherwood (1751 – 1817). Thus the Silliman’s, Bunnell’s and Sherwood were either related or connected to  Reuben Revilo Henry Brown/Charles Adams.
      • Gold Selleck Silliman & Family – Gold Selleck Silliman – American Revolutionary War, American Heritage
      • Burning of Danbury & Battle of Ridgefield
      • Grave
      • Mary Silliman Chapter of DAR Quilt
      • Mary Silliman’s War – a 1994 film of the era from May 1779 , and based in Fairfield Connecticut, the home of so many of our American ancestors.  From Historians.org “The film offers a convincing social portrait of a community—Fairfield, Connecticut—during the Revolutionary War, from the vantage point of one woman, Mary Silliman, and her family. The story weaves together an array of thematic threads: community relationships and tensions (the Revolution as a civil war), gender role expectations and realities, religious culture and moral principles, and family as both a private and a public institution….. A woman’s voice-over explains that, while the American Revolution was being fought in distant battles, our war was amongst ourselves. She describes the immediate context of the war in Fairfield: those who had been neighbors (and who continued to have much in common) had become politically divided between Loyalists and Patriots. That woman’s view—family oriented, community oriented—contrasts with her husband’s extralocal, political perspective as the state’s attorney prosecuting Loyalists as traitors.  “
    • There was a Daniel Silliman in the Coloured Troops in a Virginia Hospital in 1863 – 1865 – no connection with our Silliman family has as yet been ascertained, though enslaved persons often took the surname of their owners
  • Silliman Criminal Charges
    • A John Silliman of Fairfield charged with counterfeiting in 1763, 1776  – 1, 2, 3,
    • Justice Ebenezer Silliman (father of Professor Benjamin Silliman Snr) presided over prosecution of counterfeiters in 1768 with a Constable Ebenezer Silliman providing evidence  – 1,
    • Daniel Silliman The Colonist in the Mary Benfield Adultery Case – Connecticut Archives
  • Slave Owners – Yale & the Sillliman family
  • History of Fairfield – the home of Silliman family members for decades, even a century or so:

Proposed Silliman family tree:

Jacques Silliman married Marie Caille – note that there are no records sighted as yet to support this relationship ie marriage and parentage of Daniel Silliman. However there are other suggestions that Daniel’s father, also named Daniel,  may have married Abigail Cole, which are disputed, and that it was rather Daniel Sellivante/Sillevant who married Abigail Cole.

  • Daniel Silliman the Colonist (c.1621 Geneva – 1690 Fairfield Connecticut, USA  married Peacable Egglestone (1630 Kent – 1661 Fairfield Connecticut), the widow of John Egglestone (1611- 1659) with whom she had a son John Egglestone Jnr (1657 – 1730) who married in 1682 to Esther Mills  – details sourced from James Savage Volumes 2 and 4. Peaceble’s maiden name and family remain unknown, ie they are not given in James Savages four volumes. After Peaceable’s death c.1666, Daniel married Hannah, widow of Hendrick Hendrickson – there were no children of this second marriage. Daniel Silliman the Colonist, and some of his descendants are mentioned in ” Fairfield, ancient and modern; a brief account, historic and descriptive of a famous Connecticut town prepared in commemoration of the two hundred and seventieth anniversary of the town’s settlement,” by Frank Samuel Child” which can be accessed via Hathitrust.
    • Daniel Silliman (1661 Fairfield Connecticut – 1696 Connecticut) married in 1684 to Abigail Ogden (1666  Fairfield Connecticut – 1705 Fairfield Connecticut). Daniel was buried at St Mathews Cemetery Fairfield Connecticut. (https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1675/i/53955/64/1424346141) Abigail’s brother David Ogden married a Abigail Sherwood – one of the many Sherwood inteconnections in the ancestry of Reuben Revilo Henry Brown/Charles Adams.
      • Mary Silliman (1678 Fairfield Connecticut – 1743 Stratfield Connecticut) married Samuel Gregory (1678 Stratfield Connecticut – 1743 Stratfield Connecticut). More on the Gregory can be found here.  Note some have suggested that Mary was the daughter of Daniel’s brother Robert Silliman who married Sarah Hull by 1691 – however this could have made Robert and Sarah’s daughter too young to have married Samuel Gregory in 1699 – others also suggest it was a Mary Sillivant who married Samel Gregory however this is also disputed
        • Enoch Gregory (1707 Stratfield Connecticut – 1776 Stratfield Connecticut) married Esther Smith (1709 Fairfield Connecticut – 1791 Stratford Connecticut)
          • Samuel Gregory (1727 Stratfield Connecticut – 1808 Trumbull Connecticut) married Naomi Burritt (1728 Weston Fairfield Connecticut – 1810 Trumbull Fairfield Connecticut)
            • Sarah Gregory (1758 Stratford, Fairfield Connecticut – )  married Asahel Sherwood (1750 Newton Connecticut – 1810 Amenia Dutchess County New York)
              • Rosannah Sherwood (1780 Amenia Dutchess County New York – 1861 Sodus Wayne New York)  married Reuben Brown (1774 Windsor Hartford Connecticut – 1846 Sodus Wayne New York)
                • Asahel Sherwood Brown (1799 Amenia Dutchess County New York – 1854 Stockton San Joaquin California) married Elisa Ford (1801 Danbury Fairfield Connecticut – 1832 Otsego County New York)
                  • Reuben Revilo Henry Brown/Charles Adams (1829 – Springfield – Otsego New York – date and place of death unknown)
      • Daniel Silliman (1686 – 1717) married Thankful Howes
      • Captain John Silliman (1687 – 1752) – served in Spanish War in 1740 – married Anna Burr
      • Peaceable Silliman (1695 – 1766) married Jonathan Hubbell
      • Abigail Silliman (1697 – 1775)
      • Jemima Silliman (1697 – 1718) – married Thomas Gilbert
    • Robert Silliman (1666 Fairfield Connecticut – 1748 New Canaan Fairfield Connecticut) married Sarah Knapp Hull (1658 Fairfield Connecticut – 1746 Stratford Connecticut)
      • Robert Silliman  (1692 Fairfield Connecticut – 1767 Fairfield Connecticut) – married Ruth Treadwell
        • Daniel Silliman (1722 Fairfield Connecticut – 1773 Stratfield Connecticut) married Sarah Burr
          • Daniel Silliman (1752 Fairfield Connecticut – 1818 Easton Fairfield Connecticut) married Sarah Brinsmade
            • Levi Silliman (1786 Connecticut – Albany New York) married Clarissa Clark
              • Horace Brinsmade Silliman (1825 Albany New York – 1910 Cohoes New York)
      • Nathaniel Silliman (1696 Fairfield Connecticut – 1793 Fairfield Connecticut) married Hannah Booth
        • Samuel Silliman (1728 – 1808) married Elizabeth Burr (1738 – 1792)
          • Wakeman Silliman (1776 – 1853) – married Alma Betsey Barnes (1787 – 1762) – Wakeman left Fairfield Connecticut for Ohio by 1808
            • Amanda Silliman (1818 – 1891) married John Doud (1819 – 1901)
              • Seymour Eugene Doud (1854 – 1931) married Lilian Alton (1858 – 1917)
      • Judge Ebenezer Silliman (1707 Fairfield Connecticut – 1775 Fairfield Connecticut) married Abigail Selleck (1707 Stamford Connecticut – 1772 Fairfield Connecticut)
        • General Gold Selleck Silliman (1732 Fairfield Connecticut –  1790 Fairfield Connecticut)  married Mary Fish Noyes
          • Professor Benjamin Silliman (1779 – 1864) – Professor of Chemistry and Natural History at Yale, an Abolitionist and supporter of Abraham Lincoln , though previously he, as well as his family, had been a slave owner – see photograph – photgraph. Marriage to Miss Harriet Trumbull, daughter of the second Governor Trumbull
            • Professor Benjamin Silliman (1816 – 1885) – Professor of Chemistry at Yale
    • Thomas Silliman (c.1666 – 1692) – little is known of Thomas and apparently he died inestate with his brothers Daniel Jnr and Robert acting as his Executors (We Relate)

Lingering Unanswered Questions of our Silliman Family’s History

Tracing the Silliman family history has been puzzling family members for at least two centuries, however perhaps we need to have gratitude to know as much as we do in the 21st Century, nearly four centuries after the birth of Daniel Silliman. But then to have acceptance that we may never know more of the pre New England story of Daniel Silliman and Peaceable Eggledon and their forbears, as the records, where they were kept. may no longer exist.

The lingering issues:

  • Tracing the Silliman ancestral line The Silliman/Sillimand/Sillimandi/Silllimans family in Europe – France, Italy, Switzerland and Holland? Where were they when and for how long?
  • On which ship did they arrive in North America and when?
  • Where were the Silliman’s between their arrival in North America, their possible move to New Netherland and from there to Connecticut – Hartford and Fairfield
  • What land did Daniel Silliman the Colonist acquire in Connecticut – Hartford and Connecticut
  • What was the maiden name of Daniel Silliman The Colonist’s first wife Peaceable – noting that  Eggledon was the married name from her first marriage to John Eggledon
  • Clarifying the identity of Daniel and Peaceable’s granddaughter, believed to be Mary Gregory nee Silliman, daughter of Daniel and Peaceable’s eldest son Daniel Silliman Jnr.

Silliman Family History – Other Sources

  1. Rootsweb
  2. 2. James Savage – Index of Names at We Relate