Thanks Jane & Spring, The reason I think possibly William & Elizabeth nee Stout were the parents of my Samuel Gent is based solely on the fact his eldest son was William born 1818, which addmittedly is not much to go on.
Samuel married in 1817 in Woodditton, Cambridgeshire and seems to have been an overseer for the Duke of Rutland there, which suggests he came from a farming family. As to his naming his birth place as Selston,I now suspect he lived there as a child but was infact baptised somewhere else.
Unfortunately as I live in the USA , I mostly am reliant on info I can find on-line, I wish Northants. record office on-line service had more info, as does the Norfolk & Essex ones .
Thanks again
John