She became a widow when Aaron died in 1783. She died on July 17, 1805 in Topsfield, Essex County, Massachusetts. She was buried in Topsfield in the South Side Cemetery.
DIED.--At Topsfield, Mrs. Esther Estey, aged 100, relict of the late Mr. Aaron Estey. Early in her youth she became devoted to religion, and was a distinguished member of Christ's Church, for about eighty years. During which time she maintained a character comporting with her profession. As a wife she was kind, prudent and virtuous; she was an affectionate and instructive parent, a humane and indulgent mistress, a generous and obliging neighbor, and a faithful hospitable friend, at whose habitation wine and oil were poured into the wounds of the afflicted, and the indigent were not sent empty away. As a Christian she was humble and submissive yet zealous and active, placing all confidence in the merits of Jesus. She stood with loins girt about, and her lamp trimmed and burning, waiting with patience for that glorious day, when her Lord should call her from this vain world to shout forth ceaseless praises to her redeemer, in his kingdom of unfading felicity.
Essex County, Massachusetts was created on May 10, 1643 by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, when it ordered "that the whole plantation within this jurisdiction be divided into four sheires."
Most Americans were farmers in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
