6 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



Dickinson, of Middletown, who died in 1811. Her 

 own death occurred in 1818. She combined in her 

 nature a woman's tenderness with a remarkable 

 fund of energy and fortitude. The mild blue eye 

 that looks down from her portrait, and the com- 

 pressed lip, indicate the mingling of gentleness and 

 resolution that marked her character. Her devoted 

 love to her children was reciprocated by a most warm 

 and reverential affection on their part, and seldom 

 has filial love so fine a combination of virtues to 

 fasten upon. 



The story of the capture of his father, and the pict- 

 ure of his early home, which follow, are from Pro- 

 fessor Silliman's own pen. The extracts are taken 

 from the biographical Sketch of his Father, and from 

 the fragment of an Autobiography, both written 

 in the very last years of his life. 



My father's vigilance made him obnoxious to the Tories, 

 and he was so much an obstacle in the way of British incur- 

 sions that it became an important object to make him pris- 

 oner, especially as the British in New York were, as it now 

 appears, about to devastate the coast of New England, 

 plundering and burning their towns and destroying their 

 resources ; and as Connecticut, on account of its strenuous 

 opposition to British aggression on the rights of the Colo- 

 nies, was, in their view, peculiarly worthy of chastisement, 

 it was determined to make this hated colony the first object 

 of their resentment. A secret boat expedition was sent by 

 Sir Henry Clinton from New York manned chiefly by 

 Tories : this craft was a whale-boat ; the crew were nine 

 in number, and only two of them were foreigners. They 

 entered Black Rock Harbor at Fairfield, drew up their boat 

 into the sedge, and leaving one of their number as a guard, 

 the remaining eight proceeded across the hills, two miles, 



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