Rev William Tennent Celebrated with Blue Plaque

11 November 2024

Reverend William Tennent, a Presbyterian minister with links to Portadown, and whose inspirational work in education in Pennsylvania helped create Princeton University, has been commemorated with an Ulster History Circle Blue Plaque.

• William Tennent worshipped at Vinecash Presbyterian Church. Some of his family were baptised there.
• He emigrated to America in 1718. His cousin James Logan, born in Lurgan, granted the family land. Logan was close to William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania.
• Tennent built a log cabin some 20 feet long in which he taught the future Presbyterian ministers who served the growing number of congregations in the colonies.
• His critics sneered at his humble school as the “Log College”, but its foundation has been described as the most important event in colonial Presbyterianism.
• Inspired by his example, his students supported the founding of the College of New Jersey, the forerunner of Princeton, one of the most prestigious universities in the United States.                       

William Tennent was born in Scotland in 1673 and graduated from Edinburgh University. He’s thought to have gone to the north of Ireland as chaplain to the Hamiltons, who had considerable land and influence.

Advised by their relative James Logan to emigrate to Pennsylvania, Tennent and his family travelled with the first major exodus of Ulster people in 1718. Logan gave them land and money for a house at Neshaminy, Bucks County, 20 miles north of Philadelphia. Tennent later built a wooden school to educate his sons and others. He was following the pattern in Ireland, where dissenters were excluded from Trinity College Dublin and were often educated by Presbyterian ministers in county districts.

According to a monument on the site of Log College, more than 60 schools and colleges owe their existence, directly or indirectly, to Tennent’s example. He had four sons who were ministers and charismatic leaders of what became known as the Great Awakening, a revival of religious life and evangelical belief among colonial Protestants.

Wendy Wirsch is President of the William Tennent House Association in Warminster Pennsylvania. She describes him as an “Igniter of revival fire and father of education”.   

The founders of the College of New Jersey did not approve of the Tennents’ emphasis on personal piety and religious experience, favouring an education in the liberal arts and sciences. But Log College graduates, including two of Tennent’s sons, strongly supported the New Jersey establishment and later became trustees of Princeton. That university owes them a debt of gratitude for the spiritual and practical help they gave the College of New Jersey during its formative years.

The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church In Ireland, Right Reverend Dr Richard Murray, said: “I would like to thank the Ulster History Circle for acknowledging the place of Vinecash in a much wider and significant historical transatlantic context. He (William Tennent) was a champion of orthodoxy, a fervent evangelist and a respected teacher. Much can come from small beginnings, and like many Presbyterians, William played a significant part in the life of pre-revolutionary America and contributed to the ultimate founding of the United States.” 

William Tennent died on May 6 1746. He’s regarded as a pathfinder for the Presbyterian Church and for education in America.

Nancy J. Taylor, Executive Director of the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia, said:  “Rev. William Tennent was a significant figure in American Presbyterianism. At a time when the American colonies lacked an established higher-education institution for training Presbyterian ministers, Tennent took it upon himself to fill that need. We join you (the Ulster History Circle) in honoring the life and legacy of Rev. William Tennent and his ties to Scotch Irish Presbyterianism in what is now Northern Ireland.” 

Chris Spurr, Chairman of the Ulster History Circle, said: “William Tennent emigrated to America in 1718 and from the wooden walls of his ‘Log College’, founded almost 300 years ago in Warminster, Pennsylvania, future colleges and universities have grown across the USA. The Ulster History Circle is delighted to commemorate this distinguished religious leader and educator with a blue plaque at Vinecash Presbyterian Church. The Circle is grateful to the Ulster-Scots Agency for their financial support towards the plaque, and to the Presbyterian Church for their kind assistance.”