John Crichton, 4th Earl Erne

Who was John Crichton, 4th Earl Erne?

John Henry Crichton, 4th Earl Erne KP, PC, styled Viscount Crichton from 1842 to 1885, was an Anglo-Irish peer and Conservative politician.

Erne was the son of John Crichton, 3rd Earl Erne, and Selina Griselda Beresford.

He was appointed High Sheriff of Donegal for 1867. He was then elected to the House of Commons for Enniskillen in 1868, a seat he held until 1880, and then represented Fermanagh from 1880 to 1885. Between 1876 to 1880 he served as a Lord of the Treasury in the Conservative administration of Benjamin Disraeli. In October 1885 he succeeded his father as fourth Earl Erne and entered the House of Lords, and served as Lord Lieutenant of County Fermanagh from 1885 to 1914. He was made a Knight of the Order of St Patrick in 1889 and was admitted to the Irish Privy Council in 1902.

Lord Erne married Lady Florence Mary Cole, daughter of William Willoughby Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen, in 1870. He died in December 1914, aged 75, and was succeeded in his titles by his grandson John, his eldest son Major Henry William Crichton, Viscount Crichton, having predeceased him.