American loyalist general, born in Long Island in 1737; died in London, England, on the 28th of February 1818. He was graduated at Yale in 1757, and practiced law in Hillsboro, NC. He also became recorder of deeds, and while in this office was charged with flagrant abuses by the people of the county. Fanning was a stern loyalist, and treated all opposition to authority with extreme severity. Governor Tryon was his father-in-law, and in 1771, when the people rose en masse against his authority, he followed Governor Tryon to New York City as his private secretary. In 1777 he organized a body of about five hundred loyalists into a corps called the “King’s American Regiment.” Later he went to Nova Scotia, where, in 1783, he became councilor and lieutenant-governor; in 1786 he was governor of Prince Edward Island, which office he held for nineteen years. He rose in succession to become lieutenant-general in 1799, and general of the British army in 1808. Oxford bestowed upon him the degree of D.C.L. in 1774.
