In the first Riggs home the regicide judges, Whally and Goffe, found shelter when they were hunted from place to place by the officers of the British king. The home was enclosed by a palisade, and here the early settlers found protection in times of Indian outbreaks. It was likely the second house built on the home lot, which became the birthplace of Sarah Riggs, and where she was married in 1732 to John Bowers, who died in 1738.

About two years later, she became the wife of Reverend Daniel Humphreys. Five children were born of this union. The most noted of her gifted family was her youngest son General David Humphreys. General Humphreys was an aide and trusted friend of Washington, a distinguished diplomat and man of letters, as well as a brave soldier. 

Elegant in personal appearance, refined in education and manners, Sarah Riggs Humphreys became a familiar figure in the cultured college circles of Yale–and for half a century, as wife of the scholarly clergyman, she bore the honored title of "Lady Humphreys." 

She passed away on July 29, 1787, five weeks before the death of her husband.

The Sarah Riggs Humphreys chapter was organized October 11, 1893.

The Sarah Riggs Humphreys Chapter supports the General David Humphreys Society, C.A.R.

Please visit the General David Humphreys House for more information on Sarah Riggs Humphreys and General David Humphreys. 

About Mary Silliman
Mary (Fish) Silliman, born 30 May 1736, was the daughter of the Reverend Joseph Fish and his wife Rebecca.  Mary Fish was educated in religious school and kept a journal of her day-to-day activities.  She loved to write, and kept writing until she could no more.  She once stated that her writings would prove “instructive and entertaining to my dear children, when the hand that writes can move no more.”

Mary Fish married General Gold Selleck Silliman (1732–1790), who was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, graduated from Yale University and practiced law and served as a crown attorney before the American Revolution.

Gold Silliman was appointed as a Colonel of the Fourth Regiment Connecticut militia in May, 1775 and became Brigadier General in 1776. He patrolled the southwestern border of Connecticut, where the loyalists of Westchester County caused constant irritation and concern for patriot towns and farms along the Connecticut coast. He also fought with the main army during the New York Campaign of 1776 and opposed the British raid on Danbury in 1777. At the beginning of Tryon’s raid on Danbury, Connecticut, the General was at his home in Fairfield. As soon as he heard word of the British landing on the coast, he sent out expresses to alarm the nearby towns and to collect the militia. By Noon the next day he arrived in Redding, Connecticut with five hundred men and was joined by Major General David Wooster and Brigadier General Benedict Arnold in the Battle of Ridgefield.

One night in May 1779, nine Tories crossed the sound in a whale boat from Lloyd’s Neck. One of the Tories had been previously employed by Silliman as a carpenter, so he knew the house well. Eight of the men forced their way into the house at midnight and took General Silliman and his son prisoner. They were taken to Oyster Bay, New York and finally to Flatbush.

The Americans had no prisoner of equal rank to exchange for General Silliman, so they captured one. The Honorable Thomas Jones, a highly reputed loyalist, was captured in November 1779 by U.S. Naval Captain David Hawley and brought back to Connecticut. Silliman and Jones were exchanged in May 1780, with the General’s son being exchanged as well. 

During this time, Mary Silliman fled for her life from their Fairfield, Connecticut home to escape the 2,000 invading British troops that burned Fairfield center to the ground (the burning of Fairfield). Just a few months later on August 8, 1779, her son Benjamin Silliman was born in a tavern, originally the home of Ebenezer Hawley in Trumbull, Connecticut.

Benjamin Silliman was an American chemist, one of the first American professors of science (at Yale University), and the first to distill petroleum.  His first marriage in September 1809 was to Harriet Trumbull, daughter of Connecticut governor Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., who was the son of Governor Jonathan Trumbull, Sr. of Connecticut, a hero of the American Revolution. Silliman and his wife had four children.  Benjamin Silliman died in New Haven and is buried in Grove  Street  Cemetery. 

The Mary Silliman Chapter was organized January 15, 1894.

The Mary Silliman Chapter sponsors the Captain David Hawley Society, C.A.R.