DAVID FANNING

Background

David Fanning was born at Beech Swamp, Amelia County, Virginia, the son of David Fanning.

Education

He was apprenticed to a Mr. Bryan whose harsh treatment induced him to run away, and little further is known of his early days.

According to won a Berkeley Scholarship; moved to Hillsboro, Orange County, North Carolina, where he studied law and in 1762 was admitted to the bar.

Career

His tombstone states that he died at the age of seventy (1825), but he himself stated that he was in his nineteenth year when he went to war in 1775.

He is said to have been a carpenter, but in the years immediately preceding the Revolution he was trading with the Catawba Indians, and claimed to own 1, 100 acres of land in Virginia (Amelia County) and two slaves.

He signed a paper in favor of the King in May of that year and at once engaged in marauding expeditions against the Whigs.

He at once made his way and within three years was holding such offices as colonel of the militia and register of deeds.

He was a cultivated man and soon became a prime favorite with Governor Tryon who was appointed in 1765, though Fanning did not become, as has often been stated, his son-in-law.

In 1766 he was elected to the Assembly and appointed judge of the superior court for the Salisbury district, serving in both capacities for five years.

His career, though notable, was a stormy one and his alleged extortions as register have been given as one of the causes of the Regulator movement in the colony.

It is difficult to sift and appraise all the evidence but several facts emerge.

One was that he was thoroughly hated by the common people and had an extremely bad reputation.

On the other hand evidence against him at least partially breaks down on investigation, and after the war his career was distinguished and he received many honors not only from English but from American institutions of learning.

In connection with the Regulator insurrection, his house was fired into by the mob, in April 1768, and he lost the next election, but Tryon at once gave Hillsboro the right of representation and Fanning regained his seat in the Assembly.

In September 1770 the Regulators broke up the session of the superior court at Hillsboro, physically maltreated Fanning, and burned his home with all its contents.

He appealed to the legislature of North Carolina for compensation for his losses but without success.

He soon received, however, lucrative offices in his new colony.

Among these may be mentioned that of surrogate of the City of New York, which he held from 1771, and that of surveyor-general of the Province, to which he was appointed in 1774.

He was in active service throughout the war and was twice wounded.

In 1779 North Carolina confiscated all his property in that state and shortly before peace was his own account he was several times taken prisoner in the course of the next few years, managing always, in one way or another, to be released or to escape.

Once, in June 1776, taking advantage of a proclamation of amnesty, he returned to his home, but was soon off again.

He finally retreated across South Carolina to Charleston and then to Florida, and at the end of the war was one of three who were excluded from pardon in the general amnesty act passed by the State, together with persons guilty of murder, robbery, and rape.

In his Narrative, written in 1790 (though it was not published until 1861), he denied that he had ever committed rape or any crime not specified by himself.

After the war he moved to New Brunswick, where he became a member of the provincial Parliament, serving from 1791 until January 1801 when he was expelled for an unknown crime for which he was later sentenced to death.

He was pardoned, however, and moved to Digby, Nova Scotia, where for a time he was a colonel of militia.

Achievements

• Captures and escapes continued, if we can believe him, and on July 5, 1781, he was commissioned as a militia colonel by Major Craig of the British forces. A few weeks later he is said to have taken Collonel Alston and thirty men in Alston’s own house, and on September 13, 1781, he captured Governor Burke with his whole suite at Hillsboro.

Views

He received his training in cruelty and courage under “Bloody Bill’’ Cunningham, and not, as has usually been stated, under McGirth.

In the dispute with England he at first took the American side, but having been robbed in his Indian trade of a considerable quantity of goods by a gang who called themselves Whigs, he went over to the British and began his notorious career.

Membership

in 1762 was admitted to the bar

Assembly member

member of the provincial Parliament

Personality

His extreme cruelty may in part be accounted for by a serious physical defect. He had a scalled head, which was so offensive that, as a youth, he was not permitted to eat with other people and when he grew up he wore a silk cap, his most intimate friends never being allowed to see his head uncovered.

Connections

According to his own statement, in April 1782 when he was on one of his expeditions, he was married to a girl at Deep River, North Carolina.

Father:

David Fanning

Wife:

Sarah Carr