In pictures: Ulster History Circle blue plaque in Portadown honours life and legacy of Rev William Tennent who helped inspire Princeton University

Rev William Tennent, who was born in 1673, is also recognised as a “significant figure” in the foundation of the Presbyterian Church in America.

He has been commemorated by the unveiling of a blue plaque by the Ulster History Circle at Vinecash Presbyterian Church, Battlehill Road in Portadown.

Born in Scotland and a graduate of Edinburgh University, William Tennent is thought to have come to Northern Ireland as chaplain to the Hamiltons, who had considerable land and influence.

Advised by their relative James Logan to emigrate to Pennsylvania, William 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.

William 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 country districts.

According to a monument on the site of Log College, more than 60 schools and colleges owe their existence, directly or indirectly, to William 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, president of the William Tennent House Association in Warminster, Pennsylvania 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.

The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church In Ireland, Right Rev Dr Richard Murray thanked the Ulster History Circle for acknowledging the place of Vinecash “in a much wider and significant historical transatlantic context”.

"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,” he said.

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.”

Chris Spurr, chairman of the Ulster History Circle, says: “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.”