The McHardy Family of Corryhoul Website
The surname originates in the Highlands of Aberdeenshire as is stated below. The name was once very well represented in the areas of upper Donside (Parish of Strathdon particularly what became the Quad Sacre Parish of Corgarff), Deeside (Parish of Crathie & Braemar, Parish of Glenmuick, Ballater & Glengairn), Glenlivet (Parish of Inveravon) and the. Parish of Kirkmichael. It was once said that there were more McHardys than sheep in Corgarff, but sadly where once the name flourished depopulation has taken it's toll and there is now no-one bearing our surname in the whole Parish of Strathdon to my knowledge. The 1851 Census for Strathdon Parish lists 160 bearing our name.
Some time ago (1987) I looked at all the Telephone Directories for Scotland for McHardy in all it's spellings and found 328 listings. As was expected the spelling McHardy accounted for +/-90% of the listings, McHardie for about 6%, and MacHardy less than 2%. The majority of McHardy's were living in Aberdeen (122 listings) , and Tayside (52 listings) where once they would have gone over the mountain passes to seek work, drive their cattle to market, and smuggled whisky from their stills in Donside and Deeside. The rest were spread across the whole of Scotland from the north to the south. A look on the web at the Church JC LDS site will show that instances of the surname could be found from the Island of Orkney in the north of the British Isles to the south coast of England.
Today the surname is well represented in England, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the USA; it is also known in Germany, Argentina and Ireland. I know of descendants of the Corriehoul family in Canada and Australia but am keen to learn of more.
Below you will find materials transcribed from various learned volumes. Whether they have any true basis of fact in them is another matter.
Click on the hyperlinks below to go to the following on this page :-
The Surnames of Scotland, Their Origin Meaning, and History, by George F. Black, Ph.D., Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, The New York Public Library, 1962. ISBN 0-87104-172-3.
| MACHARDY, Macharday, Machardie, Mac
C(h)ardiadh, 'son of the sloe', from the older G. cardi.
The "h" is intrusive, and silent in the
vernacular. The home county of the MacHardies is the
Highlands of Aberdeenshire and the immediate
neighbourhood north and south, but with some few
unimportant exceptions they did not own land on Deeside.
They were however numerous and influential. The Strathdon
branch counted themselves of Clan Chattan [see the page with title More
Writings and Legends on the Surname] and
followed MacIntosh as their Chief (Stirton, Crathie, p413
- 414). Dr. Macbain suggests that the name came from
Pictish Gartnaigh, pronounced Gratney, a well known name
of old in Mar. (There was an Earl of Mar called Gartney
or Gratney about 1300). He thinks it was developed to
MacCarday, and ultimately before 1587 to MacHardy. A
commission for the trial of persons accused of the
"cruel slauchter of Thomas McChardy" in Braemar
was issued in 1560 (Rose p.233). John Mackhardie of
Crathienard, 1633 (SCM., III, P1 39). Donald Flemming
alias McQhardies was officer of the baron-bailie's court
of Braemar, 1676 (Stirton, Crathie, p420), and John McArdie
and Alexander Mckardie appear in Invercauld,
1696 (Poll book). i) Stirton, Crathie, p413 - 414 = Crathie and Braemar : History of the United Parish, by The Rev. John Stirton, BD, FSA Scot, Minister of Crathie and Domestic Chaplain to the King, printed by Milne and Hutchison, Aberdeen, 1925. ii) Rose p233 = A Geneological deduction of the family of Rose of Kilravock, writ ten in 1683-4, by the Reverend Lachlan Shaw, Minister of Elgin in 1753. With illustrative documents from the family charter room and notes, printed by T. Constable, Edinburgh 1848. iii) SCM., III, p.139 = Miscellany of the Spalding Club, Aberdeen 1841-52, The Spalding Club, Aberdeen. |
Surnames of the United Kingdom, A Concise Etymological Dictionary, by Henry Harrison, Vol.1., The Eaton Press, 190 Ebury Street, S.W. 1912.
|
MACHARDY (Celt + Teut.) Son of Hardy : v Hardy (Celt.) for MacCaradoc, Son of Caradoc : v Craddock |
The Scottish Macs and their Derivation and Origin, by James B. Johnston, M.A., B.D., F.R. Hist. S.,Alexander Gardner, Paisley, 1922.
| Name | Root and Meaning | Places of Origin and Early Instances |
| McHardy McCardie |
?'Son of Caradoc' (McB) | Early in Strathdon. 1527, Don.M., Abergeldie |
Clan Mackintosh; compiled by Alan McNie, Cascade Publishing Company, Jedburgh, Scotland.
See also the page "Jacobites" on the subject of Mackintosh.
| p14. Hardie, Hardy from old French ‘hardi’ meaning bold and daring. The Machardies of Strathdon followed the Mackintoshes whereas the Machardies of Braemar followed the Farquharsons. Alexander Hardy lived in Abroath in 1505. Machardy, Macharday, Machardie from the Gaelic ‘MacChardiadh’ son of the sloe. An influential family of which the Strathdon branch followed the MacKintoshes. The daughter of John Machardy married James Shaw of Crathienard on Deeside; the Shaws being descendants of Alex. MacKintosh, Thane of Rothiemurchas. Thomas McChardy was murdered in Brakmar (Braemar?) in 1560. |
With thanks to Sandra McCarthy (alias McHardy) in South Africa for the above.