[1] The town includes the villages of Long Society, Preston City, and Poquetanuck.

In 1686, Thomas Parke, Thomas Tracy, and several others petitioned for and were granted by the Connecticut General Court authority to establish a plantation seven miles square to the east of Norwich and north of New London and Stonington.

Owaneco, son of the Mohegan sachem Uncas, gave a confirmatory deed for the land in 1687.

[2][3] Early trades in the area included shoemaking, metalsmithing, shipbuilding, and brickmaking.

At the request of residents in the northern part of Preston (now the town of Griswold), the North Society was established in 1716.

[7][8] On August 4, 1954, an Air France Lockheed L-1049C Super Constellation flying from Orly Airport, Paris, to Idlewild Airport, New York City, crash-landed in a farm field in Preston, with no casualties.

[4] According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 31.8 square miles (82 km2), of which 0.9 sq mi (2.3 km2), or 2.71%, is covered by water.