Location: NC 42 east of Wilson
County: Wilson
Original Date Cast: 1959
Toisnot (also spelled Tosneot) Baptist Church was first established in 1756 as a General Baptist Church. Prior to September 24, 1759, a meetinghouse measuring sixteen by twenty-eight feet was built on a one-acre donated to the church for that purpose by John Thomas. On that date, Thomas registered in the Edgecombe County court a deed transferring a plantation to Jonathan Thomas except for “one acre hereon the meeting house now stands.” Shortly before the church was built, Toisnot changed from a General Baptist to a Particular Baptist congregation largely as a result of the missionary efforts of the Philadelphia Association.
Toisnot Church belonged to the Charleston Association from 1760 to 1762 and joined as a charter member of the Kehukee Baptist Association associated with the Kehukee Primitive Baptist Church on November 6, 1769. When the first major split took place among North Carolina Baptists at the falls of Tar River in 1775, the next meeting of Regular and Particular churches was held at Toisnot on August 24, 1775. Several churches in the region originated as branches of Toisnot. The first, Flat Swamp became independent in 1776, later establishing several nearby churches including Skewarkey.
Rev. John Thomas, Sr., John Thomas, Jr. and Jonathan Thomas played major roles in the early years of Toisnot. Reuben Hayes became pastor in 1789, followed by John Sherrod in 1803, when the church moved to a more central location near Wilson.
References:
Wilson Daily Times, September 22, 1959
George W. Paschal, History of the North Carolina Baptists, vol. 1 (1930)
M. A. Huggins, A History of the North Carolina Baptists, 1727-1932 (1967)