Earl of Enniskillen

Earl of Enniskillen is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1789 for William Cole, 2nd Baron Mountflorence. He had already been created Viscount Enniskillen in the Peerage of Ireland in 1776. The title of Baron Mountflorence, of Florence Court in the County of Fermanagh, was created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1760 for his father John Cole, who had earlier represented Enniskillen in the Irish House of Commons.

Lord Enniskillen was succeeded by his son, the second Earl. He represented Fermanagh in the British House of Commons, served as Lord Lieutenant of County Fermanagh and sat as an Irish Representative Peer in the House of Lords from 1804 to 1840. In 1815 he was created Baron Grinstead, of Grinstead in the County of Wiltshire, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which gave him and the later Earls an automatic seat in the House of Lords.

His son, the third Earl, was a palaeontologist and also sat as Conservative Member of Parliament for Fermanagh. He was succeeded by his son, the fourth Earl, who represented Enniskillen in Parliament as a Conservative. His son, the fifth Earl, was Lord Lieutenant of Fermanagh. He was succeeded by his nephew, the sixth Earl. He was the son of the Hon. Galbraith Lowry Egerton Cole, third son of the fourth Earl. As of 2007 the titles are held by his only son, the seventh Earl, who succeeded in 1989.

The ancestral seat of the Cole family was Florence Court in County Fermanagh. The house has been in the care of the National Trust since 1953.

Barons Mountflorence (1760)

*John Cole, 1st Baron Mountflorence (1709-1767)
*William Willoughby Cole, 2nd Baron Mountflorence (1736-1803) (created Earl of Enniskillen in 1789)

Earls of Enniskillen (1789)

*William Willoughby Cole, 1st Earl of Enniskillen (1736-1803)
*John Willoughby Cole, 2nd Earl of Enniskillen (1768-1840)
*William Willoughby Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen (1807-1886)
*Lowry Egerton Cole, 4th Earl of Enniskillen (1845-1924)
*John Henry Michael Cole, 5th Earl of Enniskillen (1876-1963)
*David Lowry Cole, 6th Earl of Enniskillen (1918-1989)
*Andrew John Galbraith Cole, 7th Earl of Enniskillen (b. 1942)

The Heir Presumptive is the present holder's first cousin Berkeley Arthur Cole (b. 17 Dec 1949). He is the eldest son of the Hon. Arthur Gerald Cole (1920-2005), younger brother of the sixth Earl.

References

*Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). "Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage" (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
* [http://www.angeltowns.com/town/peerage/ Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page]