Benjamin Douglas Silliman (September 14, 1805 – January 24, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician from New York.

His paternal grandfather was General Gold Selleck Silliman, the King's Attorney for Fairfield County and a participant of the American Revolution.

A maternal great-great-grandfather was Reverend Joseph Fish, a descendant of Mayflower passengers John Alden and Priscilla Mullins.

[4] His graduating class included Connecticut Chief Justice Origen S. Seymour, New York Attorney General Willis Hall, New York Secretary of State Elias W. Leavenworth, and Richard F. Cleveland, father of future U.S. President Grover Cleveland.

After graduating, he spent a year working in Yale as Assistant in Chemistry under his uncle, Professor Benjamin Silliman.

For over half a century he served as counsel of the Union Ferry Company, the National Bank of Commerce of Brooklyn, and Green-Wood Cemetery.

[8] In the 1842 United States House of Representatives election, he was the Whig candidate for New York's 2nd congressional district,[9] but he lost to Henry C. Murphy of the Democratic Party.