Sir William Cole

Alfred Webb

1878

Cole, Sir William, born in England, settled in Fermanagh in 1607, where he was granted 1,320 acres of escheated estates, and was made "Captain of the long boats and barges" at Ballyshannon and Lough Erne. He was first Provost of Enniskillen. In 1617 he was knighted by the Lord-Deputy, and his lady had a licence granted to her " to sell and retail wine, and make and sell aqua-vitae in Enniskillen." He was the first to give warning to the Lord-Deputy of the impending insurrection of 1641; and when it broke out he raised a regiment and garrisoned Enniskillen for King Charles I. Sir William died in October 1653, and was buried in St. Michan's Church, Dublin. A descendant was in 1776 created Viscount Enniskillen.

Sources

216. Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, Revised and Enlarged by Mervyn Archdall. 7 vols. Dublin, 1789.

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