Matthew Henry was born on 18 October 1662 in Isycoed, Wales. He held citizenship in both Wales and the Kingdom of Great Britain, and his working life was conducted in the English language across the years of his ministry and writing.

Henry was educated at Gray's Inn before committing himself to a career in the church. He served as a Presbyterian minister, a parson, and a Christian minister, roles that he sustained alongside his work as a writer and theologian. The combination of ministerial duty and authorship gave his career a dual character, with his responsibilities in the pulpit running in parallel with his engagement as an author producing theological writing in English.

As a theologian and author, Henry worked within the overlapping demands of ministry and written composition. His output was sufficiently substantial to earn him entries in major bibliographic authorities, among them the Library of Congress Name Authority File, where his name is recorded as "Henry, Matthew, 1662-1714." That record, along with his presence in the Virtual International Authority File and the German National Library catalogue, attests to the reach and continued cataloguing of his work.

Henry died on 22 June 1714 in Nantwich. He was fifty-one years old at the time of his death, and his writings remain indexed under his name in the Open Library and other bibliographic systems that continue to document his authorship.