The town was first settled around 1644 following the establishment of a treaty between English colonists, John Carman and Robert Fordham, and the Lenape Indians in 1643.

In local Dutch-language documents of the 1640s and later, the town was invariably called Heemstede,[4] and several of Hempstead's original 50 patentees were Dutch, suggesting that Hempstead was named after the Dutch town and/or castle of the same name, both of which are located near the cities of Haarlem and Amsterdam.

However, the authorities possibly had Dutchified a name given by co-founder John Carman, who was born in 1606 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England, on land owned by his ancestors since the 13th century.

[6] Richard Hewlett, who was born in Hempstead, served as a Lieutenant Colonel with the British Army under General Oliver De Lancey in the American Revolution.

Afterward, Hewlett departed the United States with other Loyalists and settled in the newly created Province of New Brunswick in what later became Canada.

A settlement there was named Hampstead, in Queen's County next to Long Island in the Saint John River.

Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin argued that the congestion pricing was an unfair burden on suburban commuters into Manhattan.

Its eastern border, also with the town of Oyster Bay, runs parallel to (and several hundred feet west of) Route 107.

Lufthansa United States had its headquarters in East Meadow,[14][15][16] beginning in the 1970s, after it moved from Park Avenue in Manhattan, in order to save money.

The responsibilities of the office include presiding over meetings of the Town Council and directing the legislative and administrative function of that body.

One famous former supervisor was Republican Alfonse D'Amato, who later represented New York in the United States Senate from 1981 to 1999.

However, in 1993–94, a federal judge ruled that the board's makeup violated the one-person, one-vote constitutional principle and also gave no representation to the country's growing minority population.

Gregory P. Peterson served as the last Presiding Supervisor, as the position was abolished with the demise of the county board.

The clerk is responsible for issuing birth, marriage, and death certificates and is considered the town's record keeper.

They are currently represented by Siela Bynoe (D), Jack Martins (R), Steven Rhoads (R), and Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick (R), respectively.

The assembly members are Joseph Saladino (R), Brian F. Curran (R), Michael Montesano (R), Thomas McKevitt (R), Noah Burroughs (D), David G. McDonough (R), Melissa "Missy" Miller;(R), Edward Ra (R), and Michaelle Solages (D), respectively.

The legislators who currently represent those districts are: On September 12, 2016, the Town of Hempstead signed a Declaration of Cooperation with the Shomron Regional Council in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Signing the pact was its proponent Councilmen Bruce Blakeman and Anthony D'Esposito and Supervisor Santino and Shomron leader Yossi Dagan.

[26][27] The Long Island Rail Road's Main Line runs through the northwestern part of the town with stations from Bellerose through Merillon Avenue in Garden City.