This community was settled in 1648 as Pochoug, an Indian word meaning "at the confluence of two rivers," the Pochoug and the Menunketesuck, by residents of the Saybrook Colony. Pochoug was the dwelling place of Obed and his tribe until 1676. The community was incorporated as Third or West Parish in 1724 by an Act of the General Assembly. It was the birthplace of David Bushnell, the American patriot and inventor of the submarine. It was visited by General George Washington in 1776 and by the Marquis de Lafayette in 1824. Pochoug was renamed Westbrook in 1810 and incorporated as a town by Act of the Connecticut General Assembly in 1840.