1Ellery Bicknell Crane, Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester Co., Massachusetts, Vol. 1, pp. 305-306 (1907)
"(II) Joseph Brown, son of Nicholas Brown (1), was born in Reading, Massachusetts, December 10, 1647. He married, May 26, 1674, Elizabeth Bancroft. She was daughter of Lieutenant Thomas and Elizabeth (Metcalf) Bancroft, and was born in Reading, December 7, 1653. Lieutenant Thomas Brown was born in England in 1622, perhaps at Cheadle, Stafford county, where a Thomas Bancroft was baptized February 10, 1622. The first wife of Thomas Bancroft, Alice Bacon, had one child who died young. (For further details of Thomas Bancroft, see Bancroft family elsewhere in this work.) Joseph Brown died at Reading, October 16, 1723, and Elizabeth Brown, who died there December 11, 1732, may have been his widow.
Michael Metcalf, father of Thomas Bancroft's second wife, Elizabeth, was born in Tatterford, county of Norfolk, England, in 1586. He was a Dornix weaver, that is a weaver of a kind of stuff used for carpets and curtains. He lived in Norwich in Norfolk county. He married Sarah Ellwyn, who was born June 17, 1593, in the adjoining town of Waynham of Wymondham, where they were married October 13, 1616. Their eldest children were born in St. Benedict's, Norwich, and four younger at St. Edmondsbury.
. . .
Michael Metcalf settled at Dedham, where he was admitted a freeman May 13, 1640. He was a town officer and schoolmaster. He died December 27, 1664, and his will dated December 27, 1664, mentions his wife and children.
(III) Nicholas Brown, son of Joseph Brown (2), was born in Reading, Massachusetts, September 22, 1677. He married, May 28, 1700, Rebecca Nichols, who was born August 10, 1684, daughter of Captain Thomas and Rebecca (Eaton) Nichols.
. . .
Nicholas Brown, clerk, died September 2, 1713, aged thirty-six years, at Reading, where he had lived. He was buried in the old graveyard at South Reading, as was also his wife Rebecca, widow of Deacon Barrett. She died March 18, 1765, aged eighty-five years.".