William Willoughby Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen, (25 January 180712 November 1886) styled by the

courtesy title A courtesy title is a title that does not have legal significance but is rather used by custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of nobility, the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. substantive title). In some context ...

Viscount Cole until 1840, was an Irish

palaeontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

and

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

Member of Parliament. He also served as the first Imperial Grand Master of the

Orange Order The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants. It also has lodges in England, Grand Orange Lodge of ...

from 1866 until his death. He was Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland from 1846 until his death.

Background and education

Cole was born into the

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

branch of ' the Ascendancy', the

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...

aristocracy Aristocracy (; ) is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocracy (class), aristocrats. Across Europe, the aristocracy exercised immense Economy, economic, Politics, political, and soc ...

. He was the son of John Willoughby Cole, 2nd Earl of Enniskillen and his wife, Lady Charlotte Paget. Lord Cole was educated at Harrow and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

. In his youth he began to devote his leisure to the study and collection of

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

fishes, with his friend Sir Philip Grey Egerton, 10th Bt, and amassed a fine collection at Florence Court, his home just south-west of

Enniskillen Enniskillen ( , from , ' Ceithlenn's island') is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the middle of the county, between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of 14,086 at the 2011 censu ...

. This included many specimens that were described and figured by

Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he recei ...

and Egerton. This collection was subsequently acquired by the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, and now resides at the

Natural History Museum, London The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum (Lo ...

Political career

Lord Enniskillen was also involved in politics and represented (as Lord Cole) Fermanagh in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

between 1831 and 1840, when he succeeded his father, to become the third Earl of Enniskillen, and entered the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

as Baron Grinstead. In

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, he was a member of the Kildare Street Club.

Family

Lord Enniskillen married, firstly, Jane Casamaijor, daughter of James Casamaijor, in 1844, by whom he had seven children: * John Willoughby Michael Cole, Viscount Cole (16 December 184415 April 1850) * Lowry Egerton Cole, 4th Earl of Enniskillen (1845–1924) * Lady Charlotte June Cole (10 May 18473 September 1933), married James Hugh Smith-Barry and had issue * Lady Florence Mary Cole (5 August 184923 March 1924), married John Crichton, 4th Earl Erne and had issue * The Hon. Arthur Edward Casamaijor Cole (9 March 185117 August 1908), married and had issue * Lady Alice Elizabeth Cole (4 February 185325 August 1931), married Evelyn Ashley and had issue * Lady Jane Evelyn Cole (21 April 185519 March 1941) After her death in 1855 he married, secondly, The Hon. Mary Emma Brodrick, daughter of Charles Brodrick, 6th Viscount Midleton, in 1865. He died in November 1886, aged 79, and was succeeded in his titles by his second but eldest surviving son from his first marriage, Lowry. The Dowager Countess of Enniskillen died in 1896. He owned a total of 30,000 acres in Fermanagh and Wiltshire.The great landowners of Great Britain and Ireland
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Notes

References

*Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990. * * * * Malcolmson, A. P. W. 'The Enniskillen Family, Estate and Archive'. ''Clogher Record'' 16 (2), 1998, pp. 81-122. Attribution: *

External links