- 1664
- Elizabethtown Associates purchase land from Lenape Indians
- 1683
- Benjamin Hull purchases "Blondyn Plains", (southwest area of Plainfield) from the Indian Cowankeen
- 1684-85
- Most severe winter recorded since the settlement of Elizabethtown
- 1702
- Queen Anne takes control of the colony of Jersey and encourages growth of the slave trade
- 1707
- First appearance of the name "Plainfield" on the birth record of Elizabeth Laing "born at Plainfield ye 1th of ye 10th month, 1707."
- 1735
- First frame house built in Plainfield
- 1736
- First Quaker Meeting House constructed on land left by John Laing
- 1743
- Isaac Drake purchases 111 acres of land in Plainfield
- 1746
- Drake House is built. Nathaniel Drake marries Dorothy Retan of Morristown
- 1747
- Nathaniel Drake listed among the charter members of the Scotch Plains Baptist Church
- 1751
- Abraham Drake, first child of the Drake Family born at Drake House
- 1755
- First gristmill built by Jon Webster on the banks of Tiers' Pond in Plainfield
- 1758
- Indian reservation established at Brotherton
- 1756
- Death of Isaac Drake who leaves his home plantation to his son Samuel Drake, and the Drake House to his son Nathaniel Drake. Cate, Drake's only female slave is set free.
- 1760
- First school house built in Plainfield. John Woolman, a Quaker & abolitionist visits the Plainfield area
- 1763
- The Webster Family opens the Road to Rahway formerly Peace Street, now Watchung Avenue
- 1766
- Queens College now called Rutgers University receives its charter
- Isaac Drake's three male slaves Tom, Tone and Cesar are manumitted
- 1774
- New Jersey sends five delegates to the First Continental
Congress
- 1777
- Blue Hills Militia stationed between Scotch Plains and Middlebrook. George Washington visits
Drake House.
- 1778
- Washington's troops win at Monmouth
- 1779
- Plot among local slaves discovered in Elizabethtown
- 1782/83?
- Nathaniel Drake marries Elizabeth Bishop
- 1788
- Quaker Meeting House established on Watchung Ave (formerly Peace Street) by John & Hugh Webster
- 3 of the Drake sons & their families migrate west and help to establish May's Lick, Kentucky
- 1800
- Plainfield Post Office established in the home of Postmaster John Randolph (1800-1805), at the corner of Front & Somerset Streets
- 1801
- Nathaniel Drake dies at the age of 75 or 76
- 1804
- New Jersey adopts a policy to gradually abolish slavery
- 1806
- Cesar, ex-slave of Drake Family dies at the age of 104
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