James MacArdell was an Irish mezzotinter.
He was born in Cow Lane (later Greek Street), Dublin, around 1729. He learnt mezzotint-engraving from John Brooks. When Brooks moved to London in 1746, MacArdell and other pupils followed him. While in London MacArdell acquired the reputation as one of the finest mezzotint engravers in the country. He opened a print shop at the Golden Head in Covent Garden, where in 1753 he published six views of Dublin. MacArdell died on 2 June 1765, in his fifty-seventh year, and was buried in the churchyard at Hampstead, where a stone bore an inscription to his memory.