Educated at the Hackney Theological Academy, he was a Congregational minister of New Broad Street in London; from 1819 he lived in Paris. He was the father of the civil engineer Clement Wilks.

REFERENCES TO Mark Wilks:

Sydney Smith to Francis Jeffrey, 7 August 1821 in A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith. By his Daughter, Lady Holland. With a Selection from his Letters, edited by Mrs. Austin 2 vols (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855)