# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cole, William (d.1653)

​COLE, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1653), provost of Enniskillen, was descended from the ancient house of Cole in Devonshire and Cornwall, mentioned in a deed of William the Conqueror. He was the only son of Emanuel Cole, third son of Thomas Cole of London, and Margaret, daughter of Mr. Ingram, and aunt of Sir Arthur Ingram, who was knighted in 1629. He was the first of the family who settled in Ireland, and early in the reign of James I fixed his residence in the county of Fermanagh. On 10 Sept. 1607 he was made captain of the long boats and barges at Ballyshannon. On 16 Nov. 1611 he received an assignment, as undertaker of the northern plantation, of the property of Dromskeagh in Fermanagh, containing a thousand acres of escheated lands, at the crown rent of 81. English, to which were added 320 acres in the same county. On the incorporation of the town of Enniskillen he was elected the first provost. On 5 Nov. 1617 he received the honour of knighthood (Calendar Carew Manuscripts, 1603-24, p. 385). On 21 Sept. 1623 he received a grant of the castle together with two-thirds of the islands of Enniskillen by lease for twenty-one years at a yearly rent of five harps (State Papers, Irish Series, 1615-25, p. 285). On the muster-roll of 1618 he appears as supplying twenty-four men, six muskets, eight culvers, ten pikes, and twenty-two swords. In 1639 he was chosen to represent Fermanagh in parliament. He was the first to give notice to the government of the rebellion of 1641, and on its outbreak received the commission of colonel of five hundred foot, most of whom were raised in Fermanagh, and was named governor of Enniskillen. He specially distinguished himself during the war, and when, in January 1643, his regiment was in need of provisions, fed the men at his own expense. In 1644 he was accused by Sir Frederick Hamilton of having traitorously concealed his knowledge of the intended outbreak in Ireland above a fortnight after he had obtained his information, and of having assumed the command of nine companies while he had only received a commission for five, but he was acquitted of the charges. He died in October 1653, and was buried in St. Michan's Church, Dublin. He was twice married : first to Susanna, daughter and heiress to John Croft of Lancaster, relict of Lieutenant Segar of the castle of Dublin, by whom he had two daughters ; and second to Catherine, eldest daughter of Sir Lawrence Parsons of Birr, King's County, by whom he had two sons.
[The Genealogie or Pedigree of the Right Worshipfull and Worthie Captaine Sir William Cole, of the Castell of Enneskillen, in the countie of Ffirmanagh, in the Kingdome of Ireland, knight, by Sir William Segar, Garter, and William Penson, Lancaster, with sub-additions under the certificates of Sir William Betham and Sir J. Bernard Burke, Ulster Kings of Arms, copied from the original roll in the possession of the Right Honourable the Earl of Enniskillen, privately printed, 1870 ; Cole's Genealogy of the Cole Family, pp. 43-9 ; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland (Archdall), vi. 43-6 ; The Information of Sir Frederick Hamilton, knight and colonell, given to the Committee of both Kingdoms concerning Sir William Cole, knight and colonell, with the Scandalous Answer of the said Sir William Cole, knight, together with the Replication of Sir Frederick Hamilton to the said scandalous and recriminatory pamphlet of Sir William Cole, with divers Letters and Depositions, &c., 1645 ; The Answer and Vindication of Sir William Cole, a knight and colonell, presented to the Right Hon. the Lords and others the Committee of both Kingdoms, and by them sent to be reported to the Honourable the Commons House of Parliament of England at Westminster into a charge given in by Sir Frederick Hamilton, knight, to the said Committee against the said Sir William Cole, 1645.]
T. F. H.