[24] Captain Doyne Sillery was born in Drogheda, Ireland, of which place
his father was mayor during the Rebellion of 1798, and where he
possessed considerable property. He was descended from one of the most
ancient and illustrious families in France, of which the representative
took refuge in England during the infamous persecution of the
Protestants in the sixteenth century. On the reduction of priestly power
in Ireland by Cromwell, the family settled in that portion of the United
Kingdom. The family name was originally Brulart. Nicolas Brulart,
Marquis de Sillery, Lord de Pinsieux, de Marinis, and de Berny, acquired
much reputation from the many commissions in which he served in France.
(See "L'Histoire Généalogique et Chronologique des Chanceliers de
France," tom. vi. p. 524). On the maternal side Captain Sillery was
lineally descended from Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, the famous
chancellor.