James Monk was born in Boston, Massachusetts,but grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. After studying in London, he took up his post as Solicitor-General of Nova Scotia in 1774 and Chief Justice in Montreal in 1794 after several years as Attorney General of Quebec. In September 1819, he became the interim president and administrator of the Government of the Province of Lower Canada after the accidental death of the Duke of Richmond.

Henry Wentworth Monk was born on April 6, 1827, in March Township near Ottawa, Ontario.

He was a farmer, social reformer, Christian Zionist, author, and journalist. At the age of seven, he was sent to Christ's Hospital School in England, a deeply religious institution, where he would remain until 1842. Upon his return to Canada, Monk spent five years farming and studying the Bible, deeply concerned with the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, which would become an issue of life-long interest. In 1853, he committed himself to the ministry of Christ and travelled to Israel. It was here that Monk first met William Holman Hunt, who shared many of Monk's religious views, and who would paint a portrait of his friend in 1858. He returned to Canada in 1855 following the death of his father and spent two years writing "A Simple Interpretation of the Revelation", which he later published in England under the financial backing of art critic John Ruskin. Monk's behaviour became increasingly erratic in his later life, having suffered head injuries in an 1864 shipwreck, and he was briefly committed to Kingston's Rockwood Asylum in 1868. He continued to publish religious articles in both England and Ottawa, before devoting himself to the issue of world peace in 1884, seeking positions in the Canadian Parliament and Senate in order to carry out his vision. Hunt's portrait of Monk was acquired by the National Gallery of Canada in 1911.

He died on August 24, 1896, in Ottawa, Ontario.

George Henry Monk was born in 1748 In Boston, Massachusetts and died in 1823 in Montreal. He was the son of James Monk and Ann Deering and was the brother of James Monk and Charles Monk. In 1782, Monk married Elizabeth Wentworth Gould in London, England. They had seven children. Monk was the Agent and Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Nova Scotia from 1783 to 1799, and again from 1807 to 1809. His original papers are held as government records in the National Archives of Canada.

Elizabeth Monk was born in 1898 in Montreal. She completed her B.A. degree at McGill University in 1919 and received the Governor Generals’ Medal. She was granted an M.A. from Radcliffe College followed by a year at Oxford on an I.O.D.E. Scholarship. Returning to Montreal she was one of the first women admitted to the Faculty of Law at McGill receiving her B.C.L. in 1923 as well as the gold medal for the top student in her class. Since Quebec law did not permit women to practice law in the Province, Miss Monk went to Nova Scotia, where she was admitted to the Bar in 1934. It was not until 1942 that the Quebec law was changed, and Miss Monk and a colleague became the first women to practice law in Quebec. She became a Q.C. in 1955. All her adult life she played an active role in women rights, pressing for changes in discriminatory laws, both Federal and Provincial and serving as legal counsel to The League for Women Rights. In 1940 she became one of the first women to win a seat on the Montreal Municipal Council. She was as well a founding member of the University Women Club. During her long and distinguished career Miss Monk was the recipient of many awards including the McGill Graduates’ Society Award of Merit in 1968, an honorary L.L.D. from McGill in 1978 and the “Persons Medal” award from the Governor General in 1980 in commemoration of the struggle for women's rights. Elizabeth Monk died in 1980.