Edmund Fanning ( colonial administrator ) Edmund Fanning ( April 24 , 1739 – February 28 , 1818 ) 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 . Life . 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 and studied law in New York . He then moved to the Province of North Carolina in 1761 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 an army of North Carolina 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 . He was wounded twice during the war and was credited with saving Yale from destruction by British forces during a destructive raid against 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 in that same year , serving as deputy to Governor John Parr . On November 30 , 1785 he married Phebe 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 Bentwick Cumberland , a nephew of Lord Bentwick , 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 .