William Willoughby Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen, FRS (25 January 180712 November 1886) styled by the courtesy title Viscount Cole until 1840, was an Irish

palaeontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

and

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

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

. He also served as the first Imperial Grand Master of the Orange Order 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 (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

branch of ' the Ascendancy', the Anglo-Irish aristocracy. He was the son of

John Willoughby Cole, 2nd Earl of Enniskillen John Willoughby Cole, 2nd Earl of Enniskillen KP (23 March 1768 – 31 March 1840), styled Viscount Cole from 1789 to 1803, was an Irish peer and Member of Parliament. Life Cole was the son of William Willoughby Cole, 1st Earl of Enniskille ...

and his wife, Lady Charlotte Paget. Lord Cole was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford. 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 preserved ...

fishes, with his friend Sir Philip Grey Egerton, and amassed a fine collection at

Florence Court Florence Court is a large 18th-century house and estate located 8 miles south-west of Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is set in the foothills of Cuilcagh Mountain. The nearby village is distinguished by the one-word name F ...

, his home just south-west of

Enniskillen Enniskillen ( , from ga, Inis Ceithleann , ' 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 13,823 a ...

. This included many specimens that were described and figured by Agassiz and Egerton. This collection was subsequently acquired by the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, 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 an ...

Political career

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

Fermanagh Historically, Fermanagh ( ga, Fir Manach), as opposed to the modern County Fermanagh, was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland, associated geographically with present-day County Fermanagh. ''Fir Manach'' originally referred to a distinct kin group of a ...

in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the 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 parliament. T ...

between 1831 and 1840, when he succeeded his father, to become the third

Earl of Enniskillen Earl of Enniskillen is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1789 for William Cole, 1st Viscount Enniskillen. He had already been created Viscount Enniskillen in the Peerage of Ireland in 1776 and had inherited the title Baron ...

, and entered the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

as Baron Grinstead. In

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, he was a member of the

Kildare Street Club The Kildare Street Club is a historical member's club in Dublin, Ireland, at the heart of the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy. The Club remained in Kildare Street between 1782 and 1977, when it merged with the Dublin University Club to become ...

.Thomas Hay Sweet Escott, ''Club Makers and Club Members'' (1913),
pp. 329–333
/ref>

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 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 John Henry Crichton, 4th Earl Erne, (16 October 1839 – 2 December 1914), styled Viscount Crichton from 1842 to 1885, was an Anglo-Irish peer and Conservative politician. Early life Erne was the eldest son of Selina Griselda, Countess 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 Charles Brodrick, 6th Viscount Midleton (14 September 1791 – 2 December 1863) was a British nobleman. The son of Charles Brodrick, Archbishop of Cashel, and Mary Woodward, he succeeded to the peerage on the 1 November 1848. He was educated at ...

, 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 Countess of Enniskillen died in 1896.

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