This area was first settled by French immigrant Jean-Peirre de Roma, who with his followers built dwellings, storehouses, wharves and bridges at nearby Brudenell Point in the early 1740s. In 1745, a group of New Englanders burned the settlement, causing De Roma to flee to Quebec. The town was re-established across the Brudenell River from the point, and is now a deep-water port for the area, with significant shipbuilding activity.
The community was named for King George III in 1765 by Samuel Holland, and is located in Georgetown Royalty (the local version of a county). Interestingly, the town’s port, dating back to the early 1900s, was called Three Rivers, for the Brudenell, Cardigan and Montague Rivers that flowed into the Northumberland Strait. The town’s name was solidified when the Georgetown post office opened in 1827, and the town was incorporated in 1912.