Northampton County was created in March, 1752, and encompasses the land o the “Walking Purchase,” a land deal made with the Delaware Indians in 1737. It was named by Thomas Penn, William Penn’s son, in dedication to his father-in-law, the Earl of Pomfret, who resided in Northamptonshire, England. Not content to stop there, Penn named the county seat Easton, after his father-in-law’s estate. Moravian settlements in the 1740’s set the county on its unique cultural path. In 1799, John Fries’s Rebellion against a federal tax on houses and land established these settlers as yet another group of incorrigible, proud citizens. Over time, the county ceded land as first Lehigh and then Carbon Counties were created from parts of Northampton.

In 1829, the creation of the Lehigh Canal spurred industrial growth, and for the next century the county flourished with iron works, steel production, slate quarries, textile mills and zinc mines. Though the decline of these industries certainly took a toll on the economic life of the county, its future may lie in the richness of its cultural and intellectual life, its tourist appeal, and its growth as an eminently habitable region close to both Philadelphia and New York City.