2 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



tions of the family to have been an emigrant from 

 Holland. Later discoveries, in which Professor Sil- 

 liman was much interested, indicate that the family 

 was of Italian origin. At the epoch of the Reforma- 

 tion, persons bearing the name of Sillimandi, and pro- 

 fessing the Reformed faith, removed from Lucca, in 

 Tuscany, and took refuge in Geneva, then the com- 

 mon resort of persecuted Protestants. Their descend- 

 ants, who had dropped the terminal syllable di from 

 the name, are now found established in Switzerland. 

 They have among them the tradition that a mem- 

 ber 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 embark for America, 

 which will perhaps account for the tradition connect- 

 ing 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. It is a piece of elevated land stretch- 

 ing for a considerable distance, and rising to a suf- 

 ficient height to command very fine views of Long 

 Island Sound, with the adjacent country extending 

 down to its shores. In full view from the Hill, at 

 the edge of the water, lie the towns of Fairfield and 



