Biography

David Fanning was not yet born when in 1755 his father, a landowning farmer in Virginia, drowned in the Deep River while looking for land in Orange County.[1] His mother moved them to what now is Wake County, but died when he was 8. Fanning eventually became a ward of a county justice in today’s Smithfield. He was treated mostly as a worker and otherwise neglected, but learned outdoor skills, horsemanship, and to read. He developed a scalp disease, likely eczema, that may have caused some baldness and led him to wear a wig in later years.[2]

He first served in the colonial militia at 16, and left home a year later. Fanning was taken in by a kinder family in Orange County for a period, and the wife cured his scalp issue. Fanning did carpentry for them and gained a reputation as a horse tamer.

Eventually he moved to Upstate South Carolina, learned to trade goods with Native Americans[3], and became a farmer. He joined local Loyalist (“Tory”) militia in May 1775 that suppressed early rebels (“Whigs”). For three years Fanning fought alongside the Cherokees during their attacks on the frontier, led Loyalist units, or was in jail: He claimed he was captured 14 times, either escaping or being released each time.[4] He also rode briefly with an infamous N.C. robber, “Plundering Sam” Brown.[5]

In August 1779 he took a parole from the South Carolina governor on condition of serving with the Patriots, which he did until the British captured Charleston the next May. He then retur