 His parents ensured he educated himself during his childhold, and in 1707 he began an apprenticeship with Stephen Powell, a printer of Dublin.Gent's apprenticeship was an unhappy one, and in 1710 he absconded, and stowed way on a ship, arriving in Wirral, England, then travelled to London where he took up apprenticeship under Edward Midwinter.After completing his apprenticeship in 1713, he worked briefly for a Mrs. Bradford, and then for a printer named Mears, who involved him in a humiliating initiation rite, discharging him soon after, following which he subsisted by labouring.