Edmund Fanning was born in the Town of
Southold on
Long Island in the
colony of New York to Captain James Fanning and Hannah Smith. Nova Scotia Governor
John Parr believed Fanning was, like Parr, a Protestant Irishman, and was from Ulster and owned great estates there. He graduated from
Yale College in 1757. He then moved to the
Province of North Carolina in 1761 where he read law with Attorney-General Robert Jones and settled in
Hillsborough. He held several local political posts and became a protégé of colonial governor
William Tryon. Fanning came into conflict with the leaders of the
Regulator movement. He, along with lawyer
Francis Nash, was charged with extorting money from the local residents, but was fined only a small fine. After several riots,
the movement was crushed by the army of the
Sandy Creek Baptist Militia led by Tryon at the
Battle of Alamance on May 16, 1771. Fanning followed Tryon to New York as his personal secretary. At the start of the
American Revolutionary War, revolutionaries drove Fanning from his home, forcing him to seek refuge aboard in the New York harbor. After being commissioned a colonel by General
William Howe, Fanning raised a regiment of
Loyalists named the
King's American Regiment on
Staten Island, New York. He was wounded twice during the war and was credited with saving Yale from being razed by British forces during
Tryon's raid, a series of raids in New Haven led by Tryon. Fanning was granted an honorary law degree in 1803 as thanks for this action. He was later appointed to the office of surveyor general, which he retained until he fled,
with other Loyalists, to
Nova Scotia in 1783. Fanning became
lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia on 23 September 1783, serving as deputy to Governor John Parr. On November 30, 1785, he married Phoebe Maria Burns. In 1786, he was appointed lieutenant governor of
St. John's Island (which was later renamed
Prince Edward Island) by the
Home Secretary,
Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, a post which he held for almost 19 years, resigning in 1805. Prince Edward Island's
Government House, the official residence of the lieutenant governor, is often referred to as "Fanningbank" on the island, though Fanning never dwelt there. He was promoted to general of the
British Army in 1808. He retired to
London in 1813 and died there in 1818. Despite having several children, Fanning had no grandchildren. He had two daughters, Lady Wood, who lived near London with her mother; the other daughter married a Captain Bentinck Cumberland, a nephew of
Lord William Bentinck, and lived in
Charlotte's Town, Prince Edward Island. He also had several prominent nephews, including the like-named explorer
Edmund Fanning, the war hero
Nathaniel Fanning, and the celebrated attorney
John Wickham. A great nephew was
James Fannin. == References ==