John Cole, 2nd Earl of Enniskillen

Who was John Cole, 2nd Earl of Enniskillen?

John Willoughby Cole, 2nd Earl of Enniskillen KP, styled Viscount Cole from 1789 to 1803, was an Irish peer and Member of Parliament.

Cole was the son of William Willoughby Cole, 1st Earl of Enniskillen. In 1790 and in 1798, he was elected for Sligo Borough and Fermanagh. Both times, he chose to sit for the latter and represented the constituency in the Irish House of Commons until the Act of Union in 1801.

After the Union, Cole was subsequently returned to the British House of Commons for Fermanagh, a seat he held until 1803, when he succeeded his father as earl. He was also Lord Lieutenant of County Fermanagh and sat in the House of Lords as an Irish Representative Peer from 1804 to 1840. He was made a Knight of the Order of St Patrick in 1810 and in 1815 he was created Baron Grinstead, of Grinstead in the County of Wiltshire, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

Lord Enniskillen married Lady Charlotte Paget, daughter of Henry Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge, in 1805. They had five children:

William Willoughby Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen

Lt.-Col. Hon. Henry Arthur Cole

Lady Jane Anne Louisa Florence Cole