The town of Easton received its official beginning from an Act of the Assembly of the Province of Maryland dated November 4, 1710.

Pitt's Bridge crossed a stream forming the headwaters of the Tred Avon or Third Haven River.

As a result of this act, two acres of land were purchased from Philemon Armstrong, at a cost of 15,000 pounds of tobacco.

Upon this tract, the same plot upon which the present Talbot County Courthouse now stands, the court house, a brick building 20 x 30 feet, was erected at a cost of 115,000 pounds of tobacco.

The Wye plantation was settled in the 1650s by Welsh Puritan and wealthy planter Edward Lloyd and is owned and occupied by the 11th generation of that family.

[10] In 1919, Isaiah Fountain, a black farmer from Trappe, was the last person to be legally executed on the Eastern Shore.

After the first day of his trial, a mob of 2,000 assembled on courthouse grounds and attempted to grab and lynch Fountain.

In 2008, a lost painting of a Paris street scene by Édouard Cortès was discovered amongst donated items at a Goodwill Industries store in Easton.

After an alert store manager noticed that it was a signed original, the painting was auctioned for $40,600 at Sotheby's.

[13] In 2011, local officials erected a statue of Frederick Douglass, the noted abolitionist, who was born a slave in 1818 at the Wye River plantation in northern Talbot County.

[10] In 2018, Easton was named one of America's top 5 coolest places to buy a vacation home by Forbes.

[18] The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters.

Maryland Route 309 begins at US 50 north of Easton and heads northeast toward Queen Anne.

The town's natural gas supply is piped from the Gulf of Mexico via an interstate pipeline to Federalsburg, where 100 miles (160 km) of steel and plastic mains then deliver it to customers in Easton.

[35][36] University of Maryland Shore Regional Health operates the University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Easton in Easton, a hospital with 112 beds, 20 acute care inpatient beds, and an emergency room.

[37] In 1906, Judge William R. Martin commissioned Mary Bartlett Dixon to serve as the treasurer and help establish a hospital in Easton Maryland.

Baseball Hall of Fame members Home Run Baker and Jimmie Foxx both played for Easton.