HISTORICAL
SKETCHES
CANE CREEK
BAPTIST CHURCH
Number 8: January, 2005 www.canecreek.org 6901 Orange Grove Rd., Hillsborough, NC 27278
THE BATTLE OF KIRK'S FARM: PART II
In
Sketch #7, David Fanning, one of the most vilified and despised people in North
Carolina history, had raided Hillsborough and made off with Governor Burke and
members of the North Carolina government. His intent was to deliver his
prisoners to the British colonial authorities stationed on a warship in the
harbor at Wilmington. Along the way he fought a battle at the other Cane Creek
on the south side of Haw River. Fanning’s fifty men joined a band of about 800
Scots Royalists and engaged General Butler and his 600 patriots. It ended in a
standoff and the prisoners were delivered to Wilmington. This happened in
September 1781. On October 19, Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. This led to
the release of Governor Burke but did not end the rampages of David Fanning. If
anything, they increased in ferocity. He waylaid bands of soldiers returning
home and continued to burn the farms of Whigs and to murder the owners.
In
Hillsborough, several notorious Tories had been captured, tried and sentenced
to be hanged. Among them were Meredith Edwards and Thomas Estridge. Edwards was
one of the Edwards clan living on land grants to the south of NC54. One brother
had been killed at Kirk's farm. Another fell at the Battle of Cane Creek. Thomas
Estridge may have been related to our first preacher’s (Thomas Cate) wife,
Sarah. Some researchers think that Sarah's maiden name was Estridge, which
could make her Thomas’ daughter or niece.
Fanning,
hearing of the capture and trials of his men, wrote an enraged letter to
Governor Burke threatening that if the men were hanged “I will retaliate blood
for blood and tenfold for one.” Thomas Cate and other prominent Orange County
citizens petitioned to spare Thomas Estridge. But all the men were hanged.
Fanning
was true to his word. He raided up Deep River. As the historian Caruthers put
it: “For some weeks after, a state of suffering and distress existed in
Randolph County, especially in the upper parts, which can hardly be conceived.
Many of the most respectable men in the county, prominent Whigs, who had been
active in the cause, and a number of peaceable inoffensive men, who had taken
no active part on either side, were murdered in the most shocking manner.
Houses and barns were burned with everything they contained. Beddings and comforts of every kind were
destroyed, and many families, hitherto in affluent circumstances, were left to
beggary and absolute starvation. All this was done from an insatiable spirit of
revenge for the British had been driven from the country.”
Few
patriots, once Cornwallis surrendered, had the stomach to once again shoulder
arms and go after Fanning. But eventually some patriots got on his trail. In
May 1782, Seeing that the loyalist cause was lost, Fanning made his way to
Charleston where, by treaty, the remnants of the British army and Tory
sympathizers were allowed to gather and ship out.
Fanning
left behind a fearsome reputation. Caruthers says “Fanning inflicted more
injury on the country, and was more dreaded at the time, than any other man and
many of his crimes and deeds of violence would live in the traditions of
people, from age to age.” When the North Carolina General Assembly passed a
general act of amnesty in 1783 in an attempt to put to rest any antagonisms remaining
between old patriots and old loyalists, David Fanning was mentioned by name as
being exempt from amnesty.
Fanning
went to Nova Scotia where he managed to work himself into a position of
respectability. But maintaining the pretense may have been too much of a
strain. In 1800 he was tried and convicted of raping the daughter of an
acquaintance. On hearing his death sentence, Fanning appealed for enough time
"to make peace with my maker.” Several months were granted. Fanning used this time to apply to the
British crown for a pardon (and even a pension!). To support his petition, he
sent an account of his exploits in North and South Carolina as a loyal
supporter of the Tory cause. Fanning’s petition was granted and he was
pardoned. He lived out his life in Nova Scotia, dying in 1825. His writings
passed from hand to hand and eventually were published (only 50 copies) in
Richmond in 1861. I have recently obtained a copy.
In
his narrative, Fanning presents himself as simply a loyal British subject who fought
nobly for his king against a wicked insurrection and who was unfortunate enough
to wind up on the losing side. He quotes Psalms 37:37: "Mark the perfect
man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace."
This
is Fanning’s account of the raid on Hillsborough: “At 7 o’clock on the morning
of the 12th [of September]
we entered the town in three divisions and received several shots from
different houses; - however we lost none except one man wounded. We killed fifteen of the Rebels and wounded
twenty and took upwards of two hundred prisoners; amongst them was the
Governor, his Council, and part of the continental Colonels, several captains
and subalterns, and seventy one continental soldiers out of a church. We
proceeded to the Gaol and released thirty Loyalists and British soldiers. One
of which was to have been hanged on that day. About 12 o’clock, I left.”
Unfortunately,
Fanning was not at the battle of Kirk’s farm and does not write about it.
Caruthers says that 25 or 30 of Fanning’s men engaged 20-22 Patriots and that
about a third on both sides were killed or wounded.
Sam
Crawford has passed this on to me. In his neighborhood there is the faint
recollection of where the Battle of Kirk’s Farm took place. There are said to
be traces of graves of those who fell in the battle. He says that a resident
once dug up one of the graves and recovered buttons and buckles, which she
proudly displayed on her mantle, much to the disgust of her neighbors. I had
hoped to report here that I had actually laid eyes on these graves. But there
are some delicate issues of access to be dealt with first.
Ed Johnson