Pinckney Island was inhabited for some 10,000 years and, before about 1775, was known as Espalanga, Look–out, and Mackey's. Alexander Mackey received two Proprietary grants for land on the island in 1710. Charles Pinckney later owned the island and willed it in 1769 to his son, Charles Cotesworth, who became a successful planter there. James Bruce, a former military aide to President Woodrow Wilson, purchased the island from the Pinckneys in 1937 and developed it into a small-game hunting preserve. In 1975 Margaret and James Barker and Edward Starr, Jr. donated the island to the United States for a wildlife refuge and a nature and forest preserve.