 The first major group of settlers arrived in the Chester area from Massachusetts in 1761, and Oak Island was officially surveyed and divided into 32 four-acre lots in the following year.A large part of the island was owned at the time by the Monro, Lynch, Seacombe and Young families who had been granted the land in 1759.In the early days of British settlement, the Island was known locally as "Smith's Island," after an early settler of the area named Edward Smith.