1745

Friends begin conducting their Meetings near the spring that will give the community its name.

1747

Anglican William Waters builds Belmont in the center of an enormous farm occupying much of the land between present Olney and Brookeville. He is among the earliest in an influx of Anglicans settling the Olney-Unity-Laytonsville area

1748

Frederick County, containing the future Montgomery County, severed from Prince George's

1751

Anglican John Riggs of Anne Arundel County buys "Bordley's Choice", north of present day Brookeville, presaging the family's settlement in Sandy Spring and Laytonsville

1753

Sandy Spring Meeting "settled" (formally organized); Friends hold first recorded meeting in frame Meeting House (perhaps a tobacco barn) near the spring

1754

Philip Thomas, age 19, becomes first member of Quaker settlement to be buried in Friends' graveyard next to Meeting House

1758

Anglican petitioners establish a Chapel of Ease at Brighton, Sandy Spring's earliest formal house of worship

1760-65

James Brooke's sons settle at Fair Hill, Falling Green, Brooke Grove, and Brooke Meadow

1776

Declaration of Independence; Montgomery County formed