Edmund Fanning

Who was Edmund Fanning?

Edmund Fanning was a British North American colonial administrator and military leader. Born in New York, he became a lawyer and politician in North Carolina in the 1760s. He first came to fame as the focus of hatred of the Regulators, and led anti-Regulator militia in the War of the Regulation. When the American Revolutionary War broke out, he was driven from his home in New York, and joined the British Army, recruiting other Loyalists. He served during campaigns in New England and the South. At the end of the war in 1783 he became a United Empire Loyalist, settling in Nova Scotia.

Fanning was appointed lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia not long after his arrival, and helped oversee the resettlement of other Loyalist refugees in the province. In 1786 he was appointed lieutenant governor of Saint John's Island, which was renamed Prince Edward Island during his tenure. He served in that post until 1813. He retired to London, where he died in 1818.