The province's Official Plan includes growth in the business services and knowledge industries, as well as in the administrative, manufacturing and retail sectors.

Quakers from the Thirteen Colonies moved to the area to avoid violence they were expected to take part in during the American Revolution.

He, Samuel Lundy and their group of Religious Society of Friends received the grant of 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) around the Holland River.

During the War of 1812 a resident, William Roe, hid the settlement's gold treasury from invading American troops.

The war helped the settlement prosper, as the British army purchased goods and food and hired locals to build structures.

Rebel leader William Lyon Mackenzie organized a series of meetings leading to the Rebellion; the first of which, on August 3, 1837, was delivered from the veranda of the North American Hotel in Newmarket.

This speech contributed to the rebellion, as it was heard by about 600 farmers and others sympathetic to Mackenzie's cause, who later that year armed themselves and marched down Yonge Street to take the capital.

[17] In June 1853, the first train pulled into Newmarket on the Toronto, Simcoe & Lake Huron Union Railroad,[9] the first railway in Upper Canada.

Automobile traffic on Yonge Street, and the already existing mainline railway, had a significant effect on ridership, and the Radial was discontinued in the early 1930s.

[22] North of Davis Drive in Newmarket, the East Holland River was straightened to prepare it for use as a commercial waterway to bypass the railway, whose prices were skyrocketing around the turn of the 20th century.

More recently, a $2.3-million investment was made by the town in 2004 in streetscaping and infrastructure improvements to roads and sidewalks in the historic Downtown.

[25][26] The arrival of Highway 404 reversed the westward movement, pulling development eastward again, and surrounding the formerly separate hamlet of Bogarttown at the intersection of Mulock Drive and Leslie Street.

[27] He had been recruited by Timothy Rogers, a Loyalist from Vermont, who in 1801 had travelled along Yonge Street and found the area appealing, and so applied for and received a grant for land totalling 40 farms, each of 200 acres (0.8 km2).

Other defunct communities once located within the modern boundaries of Newmarket include Garbut's Hill, Paddytown, Petchville, Pleasantville, and White Rose.

Furthermore, the water level in the reach of the East Holland north of Davis Drive is controlled from an unfinished Newmarket Canal lock, now used as a weir.

The town is underlain mainly by sand and gravel, ground by the icesheets that covered the area until about 10,000 years ago.

[29] Four areas of Newmarket have been selected to absorb the majority of planned population growth and accommodate mixed usages on sites well served by transit.

[30] Further construction of big box retail stores in the Yonge Street corridor will not be permitted and the long-term objective of the town is redevelopment or the addition of new buildings to these areas through controlled intensification.

[31] The southwest portion of the town is located in the Oak Ridges Moraine and is therefore subject to the Ontario Government's Greenbelt Legislation.

Precipitation is moderate and consistent in all seasons, although summers are a bit wetter than winter due to the moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes.

[39] Newmarket's population density is just over 2000 inhabitants per square kilometre, ranking the census subdivision third in Ontario[40] and 33rd in Canada.

Newmarket features a diverse and growing economy based largely in the business services, healthcare and knowledge sectors, as well as manufacturing and retail industries.

[46][47] For over 100 years, the town's downtown area, centred around Main Street, has acted as a hub of commerce and cultural activity.

[48] This status serves to protect and officially recognize many of the heritage sites and buildings along this historic thoroughfare and its many side streets.

One golf course is located within Newmarket's town limits; St. Andrew's Valley (a public club), which straddles the Aurora/Newmarket border.

Three public swimming places exist throughout Newmarket: Ray Twinney Complex, Gorman Pool, which is open only in the summer, and the Magna Centre.

[63] The location was found after years of unsuccessful attempts to purchase the Tannery Mall (465 Davis Drive) or Office Specialty Factory (near 543 Timothy Street c.1912 and now mostly demolished).

[50] Commuter rail is provided by GO Transit through the Newmarket GO Station with service south to Toronto and north to Barrie, with five trains each direction during rush hour.

The library also produces a quarterly newsletter called "Off the Shelf" to inform patrons of its programs, services and events.

The library is a founding member of the Shared Digital Infrastructure project, an initiative to plan for an Intelligent Community in Newmarket.