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 Mount Florence, of Florence Court in the County of Fermanagh,[1] which had been 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 2010[update] 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.
Michael Cole, ancestor of the Earls of Enniskillen, was the brother of Sir John Cole, 1st Baronet (see Baron Ranelagh).
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The heir presumptive is the present holder's first cousin Berkeley Arthur Cole (b. 1949). He is the eldest son of the Hon. Arthur Gerald Cole (1920–2005), younger brother of the sixth Earl.