 In 1894 he inherited Chapel House from his childless elder half-brother John Robert Tennant (1817–1894), JP, DL, Capt.3rd West Yorkshire Militia, also of Kildwick Hall, whose diaries 1847–73 survive in the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society.He was educated at the Leeds Grammar School for the legal profession, but chose a career in business, and became a junior partner in a firm of flax spinners in Leeds.