Henry Toomer was born in Charleston, South Carolina on August 7, 1738. A resident of Wilmington, North Carolina by 1747, Toomer became a local politician and an outspoken Patriot during the American Revolution. First serving as an inspector fro Wilmington in 1767, Toomer was later a member of the Wilmington Committee of Safety and helped manage confiscated loyalist lands toward the end of the American Revolution. He died in Wilmington in about 1799.