Charles Wood was the 7th of 15 children of William Wood of Wolverhampton and his wife Margaret, daughter of Richard Molyneux, an ironmonger in that area.  William Wood followed his father-in-law's trade until 1715, when he became an ironmaster too and later entered into a contract to provide copper coinage for Ireland. He was also a projector, floating his business as an ironmaster as a joint stock company at the time of the South Sea Bubble (1720). Later, he sought to develop a new process of ironmaking and to obtain a charter for a "Company of Ironmasters of Great Britain". However the process (carried on at Frizington, Cumberland) produced little iron and he probably died in debt.