Rev. Henry Wilkes was born on June 21, 1805, in Birmingham, England.

He was a businessman, educator, and Congregational minister. At fourteen, having already received sound business training at his father’s manufacturing business, he began to sell their products. The family immigrated to Canada in 1820, settling in Toronto and later in Brantford, Ontario. In 1822, he moved to Montreal, where he obtained employment as a clerk in the towing company of John Torrance and soon became his partner. In 1828, he moved to Glasgow, Scotland, to study theology at the Congregationalists’ Theological Academy and Glasgow University. Ordained in 1832, he began his ministry in Edinburgh in 1833. In 1836, the Colonial Missionary Society sent him to Canada. He became pastor at the First Congregational Church on Rue Saint-Maurice, Montreal. In 1842, he co-founded the Congregational Theological Institute to train pastors. Wilkes also served as president of the board of examiners for Protestant schools for twelve years. In 1869, he resigned as pastor to become principal of the Congregational Theological Institute.

In 1832, he married Lucy (Louisa) Hedge (1800–1838), in 1839, he remarried Susan Scott Holmes (1802–1850), and about 1852, Barbara McKeand (1826–). He died on November 17, 1886, in Montreal, Quebec.