Charles Wesley was born in 1707, the 18th child of a family of 19, and the son of the rectory at Epworth, Lincolnshire. A distant Irish relative, Garret Wesley, wanted to adopt him and bestow an inheritance on him, but the offer was declined.
Wesley was sent to Westminster School at the age of 9 under the tutelage of his brother Samuel. Then he studied at St. Peter's College,