Gilbert Tennent (1703-1764), American Presbyterian clergyman and evangelist, participated in the revival movement, the Great Awakening, in the Middle colonies and New England.

Gilbert Tennent, eldest son of William Tennent, was born on Feb. 5, 1703, in County Armagh, Ireland. The family emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1717. Educated at home by his father, a Presbyterian minister, Gilbert was excellently grounded in the classics and Hebrew and made a beginning in the study of the Bible and theology. This learning was probably regarded as a near equivalent to what a bachelor of arts degree required, because when he went to Yale, he received a master of arts in 1725.

That year Tennent was licensed to preach and began to do so at once but remained only briefly at his first charge, in Newcastle, Del. He helped his father build a log cabin to be used as a divinity school (later known as the...