sentences:  Silliman was the son of Abigail Selleck (the daughter of Abigail Gold and Jonathan Selleck) and Ebenezer Silliman (the son of Sara Hull and Robert Silliman).His son Benjamin Silliman was born in a tavern, originally the home of Ebenezer Hawley in Trumbull, Connecticut, after Benjamin's mother, Mary Silliman, fled Fairfield ahead of a British and Loyalist raiding party.Benjamin was the first professor of science at Yale University and the first American to distill petroleum.