Gilbert Tennent (5 February 1703 – 23 July 1764) was a pietistic Protestant evangelist in colonial America. Born in a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

Scots-Irish family in

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and ha ...

, Ireland, he migrated to America as a teenager, trained for pastoral ministry, and became one of the leaders of the

Great Awakening Great Awakening refers to a number of periods of religious revival in American Christian history. Historians and theologians identify three, or sometimes four, waves of increased religious enthusiasm between the early 18th century and the late ...

of religious feeling in

Colonial America The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European colonization of North America from the early 17th century until the incorporation of the Thirteen Colonies into the United States after the Revolutionary War. In the ...

, along with Jonathan Edwards,

George Whitefield George Whitefield (; 30 September 1770), also known as George Whitfield, was an Anglican cleric and evangelist who was one of the founders of Methodism and the evangelical movement. Born in Gloucester, he matriculated at Pembroke College at th ...

, and his father

William Tennent William Tennent (1673 – May 6, 1746) was an early Scottish American Presbyterian minister and educator in British North America. Early life Tennent was born in Mid Calder, Linlithgowshire, Scotland, in 1673. He graduated from the Uni ...

. His most famous sermon, "On the Danger of an Unconverted Ministry," compared contemporary anti-revivalistic ministers to the biblical

Pharisees The Pharisees (; he, פְּרוּשִׁים, Pərūšīm) were a Jewish social movement and a school of thought in the Levant during the time of Second Temple Judaism. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Pharisaic beliefs bec ...

described in the Gospels, resulting in a division of the colonial Presbyterian Church which lasted 17 years. Although he engaged divisively via pamphlets early in this period, Tennent would later work "feverishly" for reunion of the various synods involved.

Biography

Early life

Gilbert Tennent was born and raised in a Presbyterian Scots-Irish family in

, Ireland. He was home schooled by his father,

. In 1718 the family emigrated to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. His father founded the Log College nearby, which trained many Presbyterian ministers; Gilbert was an assistant there, around 1725.

Role as an emissary

In the aftermath of the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

, Scots-Irish immigrants encroached on Native American land in Pennsylvanie west of Philadelphia, later claiming Indian raids and killings; Reverend John Elder, a parson from

Paxtang Paxtang is a borough in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 1,640. The borough is a suburb of Harrisburg and is one of the earliest colonial settlements in South Central Pennsylvania. History ...

, known as the "Fighting Parson," helped organize the Scots-Irish frontiersmen into a mounted

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

and was named Captain of the group, known as the "Pextony boys,"Sprague (1858), "John Elder. 1736–1792," in ''Annals,'' pp. 77–80. later the "

Paxton Boys The Paxton Boys were Pennsylvania's most aggressive colonists according to historian Kevin Kenny. While not many specifics are known about the individuals in the group their overall profile is clear. Paxton Boys Lived in hill country northwest of ...

." This settler band, acting as

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without Right, legal authority. A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a pers ...

s, attacked the local Conestoga, a

Susquehannock The Susquehannock people, also called the Conestoga by some English settlers or Andastes were Iroquoian Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, ranging from its upper reaches in the southern p ...

tribe, many of whom had converted to Christianity and had been living peacefully alongside their European neighbors since the 1690s, on land donated by

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

. Because of a snowstorm, most of the Conestogas were out of their camp; those in camp were scalped or otherwise mutilated by the Paxton Boys, and most of the camp was burned down. After further such incidents, the

marched on

in early 1764 to express grievance that their concerns for safety were not being met by the government, and while doing so further threatened the lives of about 200 Moravian Indians. In February 1764, Gilbert Tennent was one of a group of clergymen sent as an emissary by John Penn, Governor of Pennsylvania, to the marching frontiersmen.

Works

* * * Tennent, Gilbert (1757), "Love to Christ (Sermon)."

References

Bibliography

External links

Listing of some available G. Tennent sermons and published works.

* [https://philadelphiacongregations.org/records/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Tennent%2C+Gilbert%2C+1703-1764 Digitized sermons by Gilbert Tennent] * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tennent, Gilbert 1703 births 1764 deaths People from County Armagh American Presbyterian ministers 18th-century American clergy Yale College alumni University and college founders