Born: June 2, 1838, Salem, Massachusetts.
Died: May 29, 1889, Boston, Massachusetts.
Buried: Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts.
Henry was the son of Caleb Foote (1803–?) and Mary Wilder White, brother of Arthur William Foote, husband of Frances Anne Eliot (married July 9, 1863, Boston, Massachusetts), and father of Henry Wilder Foote II.
For three years, starting at age 12, Henry delivered his father’s newspaper, the Salem Gazette.
He was educated at Hacker Grammar School, Salem (from age eight); Fiske Latin School, Salem; Harvard College (now Harvard University), 1854–58; and Harvard Divinity School.
Apart from his college friends at this time, Mr. Foote’s closest intimacy was with the valued friend of his grandfather, Judge White—Dr. James Walker, then President of Harvard College…At his house he was a frequent and welcome visitor
(Annals of King’s Chapel, Volume II, page 573).
During Henry’s senior year at Harvard College, a long bout of typhoid fever interrupted his studies, but he recovered in time to graduate with his class in 1858.
After studying at Harvard Divinity School, he became a Unitarian minister, and served at King’s Chapel in Boston from 1861 until his death.