Irish surname search
MacARDLE CARDWELL
MacArdle is the most usual modern spelling of this name, which is also written MacArdell and, in the Newry area, MacCardle. It is worth noting that in Co. Down the name Cardwell has been reported by local registrars as interchangeable with Carroll, not with MacArdle. The English name Cardwell is synonymous with Caldwell, a locative surname - at the cold well. There is only one form in Irish, viz. Mac Árdghail traditionally a branch of the MacMahons of Oriel, the sept belongs by historical association to that territory; to-day, 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 the seventeenth century; this is confirmed by Petty's "census" of 1659, which records the name as outnumbering O'Hanlon in the barony of Dundalk.
James MacArdle (c. 1729-1765) 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 Siobhán nic Árdghail (Johanna MacArdle) herself a poetess.