The first white settlement of Middlesex County was here, in the old hunting grounds of the Huron and Mississauga peoples. Ronald McDonald patented the land on which Delaware Village stands in 1798. He sold it to Dr Oliver Tiffany, whose brother Gideon arrived in 1802 to plan the village, the old village just north of the present village. The present village was established in 1832 when Henry Rawlings built the first house, which also housed the first hotel, known as the Western Hotel. This stood on the south side of Commissioner's Road.