First to settle the Sandy Spring frontier were Quakers and Anglicans, and first to build a church probably were the Anglicans--a 'Chapel of Ease' at present-day Brighton, c.1761. In that period the Church of England was Maryland's Established Church, and 86 local families had petitioned for a customary "levy upon the Taxable Inhabitants" for erecting their chapel. Many of their names still sprinkle the landscape: Riggs, Waters, Musgrove, Gartherill (Gartrell), Holland, Richardson, Thomas, Davis, Brown, Gaither, Duvall, Gue, Darbey.

Sandy Spring Quakers worshipped first in private homes, then probably in a tobacco barn near their roiling spring, organizing as a Meeting in 1753. In 1770 James Brooke deeded 1.6 acres for "the Congregation of the people Called Quakers." Legal uncertainties delayed building, but in 1817 the Friends moved with energy and vision. Quarrying clay for bricks from nearby Avalon, supervised by two Thomases, they erected what was then the county's largest house of worship and today is Sandy Spring's centerpiece.

By this time Methodists were establishing themselves in the area, first in Spencerville and Oakdale; black Methodists were founding Sharp Street Church; and Catholics were meeting in private homes, soon to build in Mt. Zion.