genealogies of the families

MacArdle CARDWELL: MacArdle is the most usual modern spelling of this name. which is also written MacArdel and, in the Newry area, MacCardle. Woulfe mentions Cardwell as another variant but it is worth noting that in Co. Down the name Cardwell has been reported by local registrars as interchangeable with Carroll, not with MacArdle. Incidentally, it may be observed that the English name Cardwell is synonymous with Cardwell, a locative surname - at the cold well. There is only one form in Irish, viz. Mac Ardghail. By tradition a branch of the MacMahons of Oriel, the sept belongs by historical association to that territory; this is also the case to-day, for it is mostly found in Counties Monaghan, Armagh and Louth. The Hearth Money Rolls again indicate that MacArdill with its variant spellings such as MacCardill, was one of the commonest names in those counties in seventeenth century; this is confirmed by Petty's of 1659, which indeed records the name as numbering O'Hanlon in the barony of Dundalk.

James MacArdle (c.1729 -1765) is notable for his work as an engraver. Another James MacArdle (fl. 1700-1725) was a Gaelic poet of the Fews, Co. Armagh, a contemporary of Patrick MacAlinden (q.v), who married Siobháan nic Árdghail (Johanna MacArdle) herself a poetess.

Source: More Irish Families by Edward MacLysaght MA, D Litt, MRIA - Irish Academic Press 1996