The area that now comprises Rural Ajax was surveyed for land settlement in 1791. The first settlers were of Irish descent. One of these men was a trader named Duffin. Duffin’s Creek is named after him. In the early 1800s families of Quaker descent began arriving here and establishing homesteads. Eventually saw and grist mills sprung up along the many streams that crisscrossed the countryside. Pickering Village was the closest village where these families would travel to get essential goods..The Town of Ajax was formed in 1955 and has since grown rapidly but most of Rural Ajax has been preserved as it is part of the protected Ontario Greenbelt.