Individual Details

Rev. Joseph Estabrook was born in Enfield, Middlesex County, England, in 1640, and came to the colonies in 1660 already prepared to enter Harvard College, where he graduated in 1664. Three years later, he was ordained as a colleague of Rev. Edward Bulkeley, who suffered from a "feebleness of body" (lameness). When Bulkeley died in 1696, Estabrook became the pastor in Concord. He married Mary Mason in 1668 in Watertown, and they had four children.
The family lived about where our fire and police stations now stand on Walden Street. His brother Thomas followed him to Concord and owned a large farm. The Estabrook Woods in the northern part of town were named for his family.
Rev. Estabrook was an expert on the Hebrew language, and his preaching was said to have been plain, practical and persuasive. He was described as affectionate, with a good father image. This prompted his parishioners to give him the title of the "The Apostle". His salary was 80 pounds a year, to be dispensed as 40 pounds in cash and 40 pounds worth of grains (wheat, rye and corn), "and every householder with a team shall carry annually one load of wood to the minister, and every other householder shall cut wood one day for the minister."
It was during this time that an episode over a ceramic Delft plate took place in the Meeting House. Rev. Estabrook had brought it with him from his homeland as a reminder of his former life. He cherished it, and chose to use it one day for the Alms Basin (collection plate).
One member spotted symbols of the old Catholic popery in the design and became so irate that he broke the plate against a wall as "not being fit for a Puritan church to use." Estabrook's son gathered up the broken pieces and mended it, and today it is in the Concord Museum with other relics of First Parish Church. Unfortunately, this episode haunted Rev. Estabrook for the rest of his ministry by affecting his salary and favors from the town.
Rev. Estabrook died in 1711 at the age of 71. According to the History of the Town of Concord, the following obituary notice appeared in the "Boston News Letter" on 8 Sept 1711:
"This day was interred in Concord the Rev. Mr. Joseph Estabrook, minister of the gospel in the said town for about forty-four years (and for many of them was colleague with the famous Mr. Bulkeley.) He was eminent for his skill in the Hebrew language; and a most orthodox, learned, and worthy divine, of excellent principles in religion, indefatigably laborious in the ministry and of holy life and conversation." He was buried in Concord, but we have no visible gravestone for him. Dr. Ezra Ripley said that he was buried with the two Bulkeley ministers, his predecessors, which would be the bick vault in the east corner of the Old Hill Burying Ground, but this has never been proven.
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Genealogy of the Estabrook family: Including the Esterbrook and Easterbrooks in the United States, by William Booth Estabrook, 1891.

Birth	1640	Enfield, Middlesex, England
Marriage	20 May 1668	Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts - Mary Mason
Death	16 Sep 1711	Concord, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Burial	18 Sep 1711	Old Hill Burying Ground, Concord, Middlesex County, Massachusetts

Spouse	Mary Mason (1640 - 1711)
Child	Capt. Joseph Estabrook (1669 - 1733)
Child	Rev. Benjamin Estabrook (1670 - 1697)
Child	Mary Estabrook (1672 - 1732)
Child	Rev. Samuel Estabrook (1674 - 1727)
Child	Daniel Estabrook (1676 - 1735)
Child	Anne Estabrook (1677 - 1757)

Father	Joseph A. Estabrook (1614 - )
Mother	Anna Brainard (1610 - 1642)
Sibling	Thomas Eastabrook (1643 - 1713)

Notes