December 28, 1766, Bideford, Devonshire, England.
November 15, 1843.
At age 14, Kent was apprenticed to his father, a shipwright in the Plymouth Dockyard. He began writing verse as a youth, and published Original Gospel Hymns in 1803. Kent went blind by age 60, which stopped his writing. However, his Original Gospel Hymns went through numerous editions, with number 10 published posthumously in 1861 and including a biography by his son.