William Cole

Sir William Cole (c.1571–1653) was an English soldier and politician, who participated in the Plantation of Ulster and established a settler town at Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. Despite his initial loyalty to the Stuarts, he was a leading English Parliamentarian figure in the Irish Confederate Wars of the 1640s.

Early life and arrival in Ireland Cole was born and raised in London, the only son of Emmanuel Cole of Devon. In 1607, Cole was given command of Enniskillen Castle, which he later purchased outright in 1623. He was knighted on 5 November 1617 and served terms as High Sheriff of Fermanagh in 1608, 1615, 1623 and 1627. In 1616 he was appointed a justice of the peace and collector of fines in Fermanagh. The 1622 commission into the progress of the Ulster plantation singled him out as a model planter who had encouraged the arrival of many English and Ulster Scots families to Enniskillen. Cole was one of four Ulster settlers commissioned by Charles I of England in October 1641 to raise regiments to defend the north-west of Ireland: taken into pay by the English parliament in July 1642, these forces formed the nucleus of the Laggan Army. He campaigned against the rebels in Fermanagh, retaking several key castles by 1643.