Ballynacargy is thought to have been largely established in the mid-18th century by the Malone family of Baronstown, who intended to create a linen industry in the area.

While the linen trade failed to thrive, the village gained a harbour on the Royal Canal which opened in 1817, and developed as a market serving the surrounding district.

It is thought that the village of Ballynacargy initially grew as a result of the decline of nearby Kilbixy, an important town in Meath 500 years ago.

Kilbixy was said to have once had twelve burgesses and a mayor,[6] along with the castle, church, a market and a dock on the shore of Lough Iron, but declined and was deserted during the 15th century after being repeatedly attacked and burned, first in 1430 by Owen O'Neill, King of Tyrone, and then by the locally powerful Geoghegan family.

It was built, probably on the same site as Kilbixy's original church, in 1798 to the designs of James Wyatt, one of the greatest architects of the time: the area around it remains one of the best-preserved examples of a deserted medieval borough in Ireland.

In the 19th century, St Bigseach's churchyard still remained a favoured place of interment for local Catholic families, as well as Anglicans.

A lane known locally as Bóithrín na marbh ("little road of the dead") once ran from the north side of the churchyard to Ballynacroghy or Gallowstown townland.