American Tory marauder of the Revolutionary period, born in Wake County, NC, in 1755. He was a carpenter, but claimed to have been a planter. He traded with the Indians. Having been robbed by a band calling themselves Whigs, he became a Tory and wreaked savage revenge on his enemies, with the aid of an organized band of desperadoes. His most daring exploits were the capture, in the town of Pittsboro (while the court was in session), of the judges, lawyers and spectators, and the raiding of Hillsboro, where he seized Governor Burke and his staff, and also took Colonel Alston and a guard of thirty men from his own house. These affairs directly aided the British, and Fanning received from them a commission as colonel of militia. When the American party gained the ascendancy, Fanning was invariably excepted in all amnesties, and he therefore fled to Florida and thence to New Brunswick. There he became a member of the provincial assembly. Later, for some crime, he was sentenced to be hanged, but escaped, and was afterward pardoned. He wrote a Narrative of Adventures in North Carolina During 1790, which was printed in 1861. He died at Digby, NS, in 1825.
