Bayfield was founded in 1832 by Carel Lodewijk, Baron van Tuyll van Serooskerken (1784-1835), a Dutch nobleman who had purchased in the area, part of a much larger holding in the Huron Tract that he purchased from the Canada Company Over the next 10 years, a plan was laid out for the community and two mills (grist and lumber) were built. It was named for noted Great Lakes surveyor and British naval officer Admiral Henry Wolsey Bayfield, who had personally selected the site for the community.