For some genealogists, this is the main question, but rather than complicate the start of this McVicar family information with "maybes" and "probablys", I have put my ideas on these in a separate section at the end, at Further into the Past: Possible Earlier Ancestors
I've started here with our first - as far as we know - McVicar ancestors to come to Australia, James McVicar and his wife Caroline Janet McNab, who were married in London on 13th February, 1853. I’m using “ancestors” in the sense of parents, and parents of parents, and NOT relatives “out to the sides.” The one exception is Caroline Janet’s half-brother, William Crawford McNab, c.1821-1861, who was transported to Van Dieman’s Land, now Tasmania, in 1840, for housebreaking, released after probably 10 years, and reunited, where and when not known, with his half-sister Caroline Janet and met her husband James McVicar, and became his mining partner.
The McVicar name
Even though James and Caroline Janet McVicar and their descendants consistently spelt their name as McVicar, there are numerous examples of officials and relatives using variations, e.g. M'Vicker. Plus, now optical readers which transfer information from old documents e.g. newspapers in the National Library, make mistakes, like Movicar, Mevicar, which, like all variations, are of no immediate use in computer searches for McVicar!
The further back we look the greater the variations.
There were many Mc/MacVicars and Mc/MacVickers in Argyllshire, and nearby Glasgow, to which many Highlanders were attracted by the growth of that city and/or the destruction of their homes and livelihoods by the savagery of their "more civilized betters" who cleared the Highlands to make way for sheep.
In 1502, legal records included a Donald owyr Makficar. In 1488, a burgess (citizen) of Glasgow was recorded as James Makuecar. The name seems to have been first recorded in Argyllshire, Scotland, and was spelt M'Bhiocair, meaning, surprise, surprise, 'son of the vicar.'
There are many websites which can provide more detailed information on the McVicar name and general history.
Next Page: Our earliest McVicar ancestors in Australia