Fanning David, a tory and freebooter of North Carolina during the war of the revolution, born of low parentage in Wake co., N. C, about 1756, died in Digby, Nova Scotia, in 1825. He seems to have been a carpenter, but led a vagabond life, trafficking with the Indians, and being connected for some time with the notorious Col. McGirth on the Pedee.When Wilmington was occupied by the British in 1781, Fanning, having been robbed by a party of men who called themselves whigs, attached himself to the tories, collected a small band of desperadoes, and scoured the country, committing frightful atrocities, but doing such good service to the British that Major Craig rewarded him with the royal uniform, and gave him a commission as lieutenant colonel in the militia. He captured many prominent whigs, hanging those who had incurred his personal resentment upon the nearest tree. His name was a terror to the whole country; he was excepted in every treaty and enactment made in favor of the royalists, and was one of the three persons excluded by name from the benefits of the general "act of pardon and oblivion" of offences committed during the revolution.

On the other hand, his romantic mode of life and personal daring, displayed many times in battle, drew around him numerous followers, whom he disciplined with great strictness. He is said to have commanded at one time 200 or 300 men.When the whigs began to gain the ascendancy in North Carolina, he went to Florida, and afterward to St. John's, N. B., where he assumed a respectable deportment, and became member of the assembly. About 1800 he was sentenced to be hanged for rape, but escaped, and was afterward pardoned.