Among the first settlers in Arlington were Captain Jehiel Hawley and his family, who had settled there by 1764. They were Anglicans and had fled Roxbury, Connecticut, because of the oppressive requirements of the established Congregational church. At a Proprietor's meeting in 1764, the town voted to give of land to any man who would set up a gristmill in what is now East Arlington. This offer was accepted by Remember Baker (first cousin of Ethan Allen), who built a grist and sawmill.