Prince Estabrook Memorial

Widely celebrated as the first Black Patriot to fight in the American Revolution, Prince Estabrook took part in the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775. Although he was shot during the skirmish, Estabrook survived his wounds and went on to see combat yet again, just a few months later in July. He served a number of additional tours of duty as a militia man, then joined the Continental Army in 1780.

After the war, Estabrook received manumission from Benjamin Estabrook, the Lexington man to whom he had been enslaved. He later moved to Ashby and lived with Benjamin’s son, Nathaniel.

Prince Estabrook died in 1830 and was buried in the pauper’s section of Ashby’s First Parish Burial Ground. One hundred years later his service was formally recognized during the Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary with a simple grave marker bearing his name and regiment.

In 2008, a memorial honoring Estabrook and the thousands of other African Americans who fought in the Revolutionary War was installed outside Lexington’s Buckman Tavern. Sited across from the Battle Green, where the first monument to the American Revolution was erected in 1799, the Estabrook Memorial was made possible by local editor and newspaper reporter, Alice ‘Mickey’ Hinkle, who became interested in Estabrook following an interview she conducted with local living history presenter Charles H. Price.

Unaware that Lexington’s militia company had included an enslaved individual, Hinkle set out to uncover Estabrook’s life story. Seven years later the book Prince Estabrook: Slave and Solider was published. Hinkle dedicated a portion of the proceeds to a fund to memorialize Estabrook at a prominent location within the community.

The plaque reads:

In Honor of
PRINCE ESTABROOK

Prince Estabrook was a slave who
lived in Lexington. At dawn on
April, 19, 1775, he was one of the
Lexington Minute Men awaiting the
arrival of the British Regulars at the
Buckman Tavern. In the battle which
followed, Prince Estabrook was
wounded on Lexington Green.
Through circumstances and destiny, he
thus became the first black soldier to
fight in the American Revolution.

This monument is dedicated to the
memory of Prince Estabrook and the
thousands of other courageous black
patriots long denied the recognition
they deserve.

Donated by the Alice M. Hinkle Memorial Fund
April 21, 2008