Sir Matthew Wood, 1st Baronet

Sir Matthew Wood, 1st Baronet (2 June 1768 – 25 September 1843) was a British Whig politician.

Matthew Wood was the son of William Wood, a serge maker from Exeter and Tiverton, and his wife Catherine Cluse (died 1809). He was educated briefly at Blundell's School, before being obliged to help his ailing father. He was apprenticed to his cousin, an Exeter chemist and druggist, but moved to London in 1790 to set himself up in business.

He was a member of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers, a member of the Court of Aldermen of the City of London, Sheriff of the City of London for 1809 and Lord Mayor of London from 1815 to 1817. He was elected unopposed as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the City of London at a by-election in June 1817, following the resignation of Harvey Christian Combe MP. He held the seat until his death in 1843.

Wood was a prominent partisan and adviser of Queen Caroline on her return to England in 1820, a not uncontroversial role. Greville noted acerbically in his diary on 7 June 1820:

”The Queen arrived in London yesterday at seven o’clock… She travelled in an open landau, Alderman Wood sitting by her side and Lady Anne Hamilton and another woman opposite. Everybody was disgusted at the vulgarity of Wood in sitting in the place of honour, while the Duke of Hamilton’s sister was sitting backwards in the carriage.”

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