Silliker, Jacob

From: An Island Refuge- Loyalists and Disbanded Troops on The Island of Saint John, The Abegweit Branch of UELAC, 1983

  • JACOB SILLIKER was an enlisted soldier with the Westchester County Militia in Connecticut. He emigrated to the Island of Saint John by way of the Loyalist town of Shelburne in Nova Scotia, arriving there from New York in 1783 with his wife and five children. When Silliker learned that Governor Patterson and several of the proprietors were seeking settlers he decided to join the eighteen Loyalist families preparing to depart for the Island. They arrived at Charlottetown on July 26, 1784.
  • Jacob’s wife was Mary Strang, daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Galpin Strang of Greenwich, Connecticut. She was a sister of Daniel Strang who was hanged as a spy in 1777 by the Revolutionary Forces, and an aunt of Daniel’s son, Jesse Strang, who accompanied her and Jacob to Bedeque.
  • Jacob and Mary Silliker settled at Bedeque on part of their 500 acre land grant in Lot 26. The proprietor was John Townson. Jacob probably died in 1801 for his son Joseph was bonded administrator of the estate August 11th, of that year. Joseph’s farm in Lower Bedeque was located on the north end of that property.
  • The children of Jacob and Mary Silliker were: Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph, Daniel, Strang and William who was born after the family came to Bedeque.