James Randal Kent was born on October 23, 1792, to Joseph and Margaret McGavock Kent in Virginia. He married Mary Cloyd Kent, the daughter of Gen. Gordon and Elizabeth McGavock Cloyd. Gordon Cloyd left a tract of land along the New River know as Buchanan's Bottom to Mary and James. They moved there and lived at first in the old Trigg house. Later, they built Kentland mansion, which stands to this day. James and Mary Kent had five daughters, Elizabeth Cloyd, born 1819, Sarah James, born 1822, Mary Louisa, born 1824, Cynthia, born 1827, and Margaret Gordon, born 1840.

James Randal Kent was an enslaver, landowner, and farmer in Montgomery and Pulaski counties, Virginia. He also held several minor public offices including Sheriff of Montgomery County from 1822 to 1823 and served as a Justice and a land surveyor. Throughout the 1830s and 1840s, Kent bought up land; he owned around 8,000 acres in 1860. In 1855, construction began on a resort at Montgomery White Sulphur Springs, a hotel that later served as a hospital during the American Civil War. In 1860, James Randal Kent became a founder of the Preston and Olin Institute, a Methodist school in Blacksburg that was the predecessor to present day Virginia Tech. He was among the wealthiest men in Montgomery County with an estimated wealth of $196,000.

During the Civil War, Kent was a staunch supporter of the Confederacy and slavery, and he enslaved more than 100 people at the start of the war. He served as an organizer for the Confederate Army, as well as a supplier of foodstuffs, providing grain and beef to the Confederate Army all the way up to the day Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox in 1865. Though Kentland survived the war, many barns and out-buildings were burned, including the plantation office with the majority of Kent's personal papers, and in 1867 his land was valued at 41% less than it had been in 1860. James Randal Kent died on May 29, 1867.