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SKETCH OF COLONEL FANNING. 57

Yale College, New Haven, where, after going through the regular course of' collegiate studies, he received the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts; and in 1774 he was honored by the University of Oxford, England, with the de- gree of Doctor of Civil Law. From college he proceeded to North Carolina, where, after studying two years under the attorney general of that province, he was, in 1762, admit- ted to the bar. He was successful in his profession; but the troubles of the eventful period in America which fol- lowed the passing of the Stamp Act by the British Parlia- ment, induced him to enter the civil and military service of his country. In 1765 he was appointed by Governor Tryon of North Carolina one of the Judges of the Supreme‘Court in that province in the room of Mr. Justice Moore, who was dismissed from office upon the supposition of his favoring the public commotions at the time existing in North Caro- lina. In 1768 he raised, at the request of Governor Tryon, a corps of eight hundred provincials to oppose and put down a body of insurgents who styled themselves regulators, whose object was to rescue from trial and punishment lead- ing rebels. In 1771 he was again called upon by Governor Tryon to raise and embody a corps of provincials to sup— press an insurrection in North Carolina, and was second to Governor Tryon at the battle of Allamance, in which action the insurgents, to the number of twelve thousand, were totally defeated.

In the year 1773 Colonel Fanning went to England, strongly recommended to His Majesty’s ministers for his services in North Carolina. Having applied for the otlice of Chief Justice of Jamaica, he received a letter from Lord Dart- mouth, then secretary of state for the American department, stating that it was impossible in this case to comply with his wishes, but that he should have the first vacant post that