Thomas Raikes Thomas Raikes Thomas Raikes ("the Elder") (28 March 1741 – 29 December 1813) was a British merchant particularly trading from London with Russia, a banker and newspaper proprietor. Notably, he was Governor of the Bank of England during the 1797 currency crisis, when the Bank was prohibited by the British Government from paying out in gold. Raikes was born at Gloucester in 1741, third son of Robert Raikes the Elder and Mary Drew. His brothers included Robert Raikes, the founder and promoter of Sunday schools, and William Raikes, a director of the South Sea Company. Raikes was Governor of the
Harriet Raikes Harriet Raikes Harriet Raikes was the daughter of Thomas Raikes the Younger, a merchant and banker in London, and the granddaughter of Thomas Raikes the Elder, also merchant and banker in London and Governor of the Bank of England from 1797 to 1799. Her father became a famous dandy traveller in Europe, meeting the highest celebrities of his times and he was also a diarist. In 1861 Harriet edited her father's correspondence with the 2nd Duke of Wellington. She was also the author of "The Marriage Contract" (London: Richard Bentley, 1849, 2 vols), which is the first recorded murder mystery