Silliman family.

Benjamin Silliman was born in Trumbull (North Stratford), Connecticut on August 8, 1779. He graduated from Yale College in 1796, studied law with Simeon Baldwin, was appointed as a tutor at Yale College (1799), and was admitted to the bar in 1802. He was appointed professor of chemistry and natural history at Yale College in 1802. Silliman taught, lectured, and published until 1853. He died in New Haven, Connecticut on November 24, 1864.

Four generations of Sillimans, surrounding the central figure of Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864), are represented in the Silliman Family Papers. According to a number of sources, Silliman's ancestors were Italian Protestants named Sillimandi, who moved to Geneva some time during the Reformation and later to Holland. Elizabeth Schenck in History of Fairfield, Fairfield County, Connecticut notes that the first member of the family in America, Daniel Sillivant, settled in Fairfield around 1658. By 1690 the family name was established as Silliman.

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