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My Sill Family


The name Sill is derived from the medieval personal name Silva - which is short form of Silvester or Silvanus - meaning

It has been identified that our branch of the Sill family originates in Jamaica. There are Sills in Jamaica that go back to the early 1700s. These Sills include Edmund Sill who was the part-owner of two ships engaged in the West Indies trade - the Pickering and the Dent. The family had a number of properties in Dentdale on the Cumbria, West Yorkshire border,, purchased on the benefits of this trade. They also built the impressive Whernside Manor, and brought slaves over from Jamaica to work on the property. Edmunds son John Sill of Jamaica (1724-1774) purchased Providence in St James and part of the adjacent Potosi estate in St James' and had a shop in Kingston. Upon Johns death this estate was left to his brothers William Sill and Edmund Sill (1721-1806). Edmunds son John (who died 1803) used 'revenues from Jamaica to buy up various estates at or near Westhouses, Kirkwaithe'. Upon Johns death it came under the ownership of Edmunds daughter Ann Sill. The Sill family and Ann Sill's relationship with a freed Slave Richard Sutton is purported to be the inspiration for Catherine and Heathcliffe in 'Wuthering Heights'. Anns death in 1835 saw the extinction of this line. We have not been able to link our family to this line, or trace our line back to England. 

The earliest known ancestor is Richard Sill. Her His great granddaughter Jane Bygrave emigrated to Australia from Jamaica in 1853.

My Sill ancestry goes back 9 generations and biographies exist for some members as indicated by links