The McCargar Name

The origin of the Name (excerpt):

by Robert McCargar (1922-2009)

There is no Gaelic word “Cargar”, so our name is either a derivative of another Irish or Scottish name, or a result of misspellings (many commoners were illiterate and could not spell their own name).

Of the Gaelic words resembling “Cargar”, the closest are “cargan”, “cargen”, and “cargin”, which roughly mean “a little crag” or “a rocky place”.  An alternative spelling from Scotland is “Kargan”.  Other close Gaelic words are “carraig”, “caraig”, “carraic”, and “carragh”, which mean rock or cliff.  Adding “an” as a suffix is a diminutive form, thus “carracican” or “carriagan” are equivalent to “cargan”, “cargin” and “cargen”, which are also diminutive forms.  Another word “carragh”, which means an erect stone or monument, forms the root of the name “McCarragher”, which shows up in the US census records.

These misspellings can be seen in the example of Nicholas McCarghar who appears on the rental rolls of Portaferry Estate, County Down, Ireland (an area settled by the Scotch from Galloway).  On the same rolls, Nicholas also appears as “McCarcher” and “McCaricher”.  The “er”, “ar”, “ch”, “gh” and “ich” all appear to be used interchangeably, so it is possible that “McCargar” might be a simplification of “McCarragher”.  The Scottish names “Mackerchar”, “Mackeracher”, and “Macherracher” are also likely ancestors to “McCargar”, particularly when you consider that “ker” and “car”, and “gh” and “ch” are also interchangeable.

As long as there have been McCargars around, there has been a debate as to whether the name “McCargar” is of Irish or Scottish origin, with the ultimate answer being probably “yes”.

1600s

More than likely, the first McCargars that showed up in Northern Ireland were Scottish Presbyterians that were “transplanted” into Ireland sometime between 1600 and 1650.  These Presbyterians were relocated from Scotland in an attempt to balance the religious power in Northern Ireland, which at that time favored the Catholic Church.

The earliest record we have found for a McCargar is a 1653 proclamation issued by “The commissioners for the settling and securing the Province of Ulster”. They were resuming a previous plan of removing “all the popular Scots” out of Ulster.  The proclamation was published by the “Commissioners”, specifying the conditions on which it was proposed to transplant the leading Presbyterians in the counties of Down and Antrim to certain districts in Munster.  The proclamation included two hundred and sixty names that, “by their attachment to monarchical and Presbyterian principles, and by their station and influence, were most obnoxious to the reigning faction”, were required, within a specified time and under certain penalties, to embrace the terms offered.  On this list from the area of Broadisland, East Quarters of Carrickfergus (near Belfast), is the name John M’Kerger. In the end the Commissioner’s transplant plans were never implemented.

Since the “Car” and “Ker” are phonetically interchangeable, and we know that even our oldest known North American relatives, Joseph and Thomas McCargar, interchanged the “ar” and “er” ending to their names, we surmise that “M’Kerger” is probably either an early form of or a phonetic spelling for “McCargar”.  Both M’ and Mc are acceptable abbreviations of Mac – meaning “the son of”.

Adding to this theory, that John M’Kerger was actually a McCargar, are the 1669 County Antrim, Northern Ireland “Hearthmoney tax roll” records (excerpts below), which are the oldest records we’ve found for the modern spelling of McCargar.

Note of interest: Behind some of the names on the tax roll, in parentheses, are the names of the people that were taxed in 1666. It appears that both John McCargars had different spellings of their last names in 1666 – John from Ballindrock had the spelling “McKergore” and John from Ballymackelroy had “McKarger”.

What’s even more interesting about John from Ballymackelroy is that in 1666 it appears the property was owned by McKarger, elder (meaning John’s father, John Sr.). This fits with the John McKarger on the 1653 Presbyterian transplant list drawn up by the Ulster Commissioners.

So, if the lineage of our oldest North American ancestors, Joseph and Thomas, could be traced back to that John M’Kerger in the proclamation, then the name more than likely originated in Scotland. However, we have no lineage continuity from 1669 to 1758 in the McCargar line, with the only connection being the rarity of the name.

It does not appear that the name “McCargar” was a very common one, and it was certainly not the name of a clan or a well-known sect. But, if the Commissioners proclamation included the name “McCargar”, then perhaps they were of higher standing or influence in the community, or perhaps they were just overly obnoxious Presbyterians.

The McCargar name has never been confirmed in any Scottish surname lists, but a Kirkudbright County librarian claimed that the name appeared in the “Dictionary of Scottish Names” as being of Galloway origin. Unfortunately, she found no evidence of McCargars in their Kirkudbright County records, and we have been unable to verify her report of it being in a “Dictionary of Scottish Names”.  There is, however, striking similarity between “McCargar” and other names appearing in the Galloway region of Scotland. Galloway is an area of the southern Scottish uplands embracing three counties: Kirkudbright, Dumfries and Wightown.  Considerable population interchange between the Galloway region and County Antrim, Ireland has taken place over the years, as there are only a few miles of water separating the two.

1700s

There are very few records of McCargars in the “Old World”. Most Irish records were destroyed, either in fires at the national archives or by the British, so there are not enough records still existing to provide us with any sort of continuous lineage.

The next oldest records of McCargars come from the late 1700s:

1. Thomas McCarger of Antrim, Ireland appears in an “Index of Will that was approved by the Diocese of Conner” in 1759.  Unfortunately, the Will itself was destroyed in a fire and only the index remains.
2. John McCargor appears in an April 1772 Belfast Newsletter article about a riot in Antrim, Ireland.
3. Bryan and James McCarghar are mentioned in an August 1774 Belfast Newsletter land sale advertisement.
4. Joseph and Thomas McCargar appear in British Army muster rolls for the American War of Independence.

1800s

In the UK’s Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner list from 1819 is a Jas McCargar who was there because of sickness. Jas was a private, reportedly born in Scotland, and enlisted for 20 years. This is an instance where the handwriting/interpretation may not be the McCargar name but close.

The only census records we have from the “old world” are from the late 1800s:

We have not been able to link any of these names to our ancestors.

“New World” Records

So far, twenty-one McCargars have been found in the US census records who have declared their place of birth as being from Ireland (18), England (1) or Scotland (2). While these records are not in any way proof of their place of birth, it seems unlikely that they are all bogus declarations; thus, suggesting that there were McCargars in the “Old World” up to the late 1800s (the latest birth date from the US census records is 1884).

The North American brothers, Joseph and Thomas McCargar, had their names spelled in at least three different ways: “McCargar”, “McCarger”, and “Macargar”.  There are even examples of two different spellings in the same document.  One must realize that in those early days the spelling of names was not as important as it is today.  Frequently, the educational level was such that many could neither write nor spell their own names, thus clerks, when recording names, often spelled them the way they sounded or the way the clerk thought they sounded (if your last name is McCargar, think how often today’s educated people have misspelled or mispronounced it).  The difference between McCargar and M’Kerger may well be nothing more than a clerk’s interpretation.

It seems many of the US census enumerators, even those with relatively legible handwriting, upon encountering the McCargar name seemed to use the old adage of “if you can’t spell it, scribble”.  McCargars seem to encounter more than our share of illegible surnames on the census records.  However, the uniqueness of our name helps in making it easer to identify and correct these misspellings and scribbles. There have been at least 30 different spellings found in the US census¹, some of them are really bizarre: like “McGargeor” or “MacKargar” or even “McCanagan”. Literacy, interpretation, and pronunciation all take a toll on the McCargar name, whether it’s from the 17^th or 21^st century (Ask any McCargar).

¹ The following is a list of some of the more common variations found in the US census records, all of which can be traced back to known descendants of Thomas McCargar: