Mallow Plantation began as a Crown grant to Captain John McIntosh, a British Army officer who served in Florida during the War with Spain. When he later went into the Indian country, his brother, the eccentric Captain Roderick (Rory) McIntosh, and their sister, Miss Winnewood McIntosh, occupied the home built on this bluff in the 1760s. Rory McIntosh became a notable figure in pre-Revolutionary Georgia history. After the Revolution, Mallow passed to Captain William McIntosh, a son of Captain John, who was also a British Army officer and the father of the Indian Chief, General William McIntosh. Early in the 19th century, Mr. and Mrs. Reuben King purchased Mallow, and they were living there when forces from a Federal gunboat anchored in the nearby Sapelo River raided the plantation in November, 1862.