John was the son of John Fendall, Senior, Esq. (1729–1791) and Sarah Bolder (1735–1813). John Senior, was in turn the son of William Fendall, Senior
(1693–1753) and Delia Rivers.
William Senior, was the son of Thomas Fendall, Senior, and his wife, Jane (1648–1736), of Gloucester, England.
He began service in the East India Company in 1778 at the age of 16. He returned to London in 1809 for the first time in 31 years. The voyage at that time took 5 ½ months to complete.
Fendall returned to Calcutta in 1815 only to find that he had been appointed Lieutenant-, which island the British took from the Dutch in 1811.
On 11 March 1816 by the last advice from Batavia, John relieved Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles as Lieutenant, an island which is now a part of the Republic of Indonesia. In 1816, the Dutch sent a fleet to reclaim possession of Java.
However, Fendall had not received orders from the Governor-General, and therefore, stoutly refused to give up possession, and the Dutch had to wait until the orders came. On 16 August, of the same year, the Dutch resumed possession, thus making Fendall the last British Governor.
John left Java in June 1818, on the ship Caesar.
Fendall returned to Calcutta in 1817 and took his seat on the Bench of Sudder Diwani and Nizamat Adalat, the predecessor of the High Court. lieutenant seems that while at Java, Fendall had disallowed some allowance which a certain Colonel Yule had claimed. As a result, the fiery soldier followed him to Calcutta and demanded that he should alter his decision.
After Fendall refused, Yule pushed the papers in his face and brushed them across it and told him to take it as a personal insult.
This Fendall was quite ready to do and sent for a friend, named Assey, to take a challenge to the Colonel. As the Governor-General agreed with them, Fendall was forbidden to fight and his opponent apologized, to escape being tried by court martial.
He was a Senior Merchant of the East India Company, and in 1823 was the President of the Board of Trade on the Bengal Establishment. In 1824 he served on the Viceroy’s Council.
Fendall died on 10 November 1825 in Calcutta, India.
The Council agreed that Fendall could not be called on to defend an official act in such a way and that Colonel Yule’s conduct was highly insubordinate.
Assey refused to have anything to do with a challenge, in spite of John's protests, and took the matter to various members of Council. Fendall was transferred to Bengal, and became a member of the Supreme Council on 20 May 1820, which constituted membership in the Bengal Civil Service.
