 From the 1740s Gent's business went into decline, due to competition from John White Jnr., and other printers who had set up in York; he lost the lease on his house and print premises in Stonegate in 1742, and moved to a house in Petergate, where he continued to publish but with reduced output.He publisher several works covering religious topics, in poem form, the first being "The Holy Life and Death of St. Winefred".On 1 April 1761 his wife, Alice died.