Tennent, William

Tennent, William, 1673–1745, American Presbyterian clergyman and educator, b. Ireland, grad. Univ. of Edinburgh, 1695. He was ordained in the Church of Ireland in 1706. He emigrated to America c.1718; in 1726 he was called to a pastorate in Neshaminy, Pa., where he stayed the remainder of his life. Here, in a log cabin, Tennent established a school that became famous as the Log College. He filled his pupils with evangelical zeal, and a number became revivalist preachers in the Great Awakening. The educational influence of the Log College was of importance since many of its graduates founded schools along the frontier. Princeton Univ. is regarded as a successor to the Log College.

Bibliography

See T. Murphy, The Presbytery of the Log College (1889); A. Alexander, The Log College (1968).