He initially served during the Revolutionary War in 1776 as a 1st lieutenant in the Third Battalion of the Flying Camp from Maryland.[2] After the Flying Camp was disbanded in December 1776, Dent returned to Maryland and was commissioned a 1st lieutenant in the Charles County militia under Captain Thomas H. Marshall. He was subsequently promoted to captain and assigned to the Twenty-sixth Battalion in May 1778.[3]
In 1792, Dent was elected as a Pro-Administration candidate to the Third Congress and reelected as a Federalist to the Fourth through Sixth Congresses, serving from March 4, 1793, to March 3, 1801. In Congress, Dent served as chairman of the Committee on Elections (Sixth Congress). He also served as Speaker pro tempore of the House at various times from 1797 to 1799.
His father had been a general during the Revolutionary War. His grandfather, George Dent, had been Chief Justice of Maryland. Judge Thomas Dent, Sr. was his grandfather's grandfather. The Dent family had been part of Maryland society from the very beginning of the colony. His son was naval hero of the Barbary Wars, Captain John H. Dent. George Dent left his family and public service behind when he moved to Georgia in 1802 and settled about twelve miles from Augusta. He died in 1813 in a horseback riding accident and is interred on his plantation.
^Newman, Harry Wright (1971). Charles County Gentry: A Genealogical History of Six Emigrants - Thomas Dent, John Dent, Richard Edelen, John Hanson, George Newman, Humphrey Warren. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. p.37.
^Steuart, Rieman (1969). A History of the Maryland Line in the Revolutionary War, 1775-1783.Society of the Cincinnati of Maryland, p. 73.
