Sunday school Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian, which caters to children and other young people who would be working on weekdays. Sunday schools were first set up in the 1780s in England to provide education to working children. William King (see memorial in Dursley Tabernacle Church) first started a Sunday school in Dursley, Gloucestershire, and suggested to his friend Robert Raikes, that he start a similar school in Gloucester, which resulted in Raikes generally being quoted as starting the schools. Raikes was editor of the Gloucester Journal. He wrote an article in his
Robert Raikes the Elder employed by a wealthy distiller, Samuel Hasbart, to launch a newspaper in Norwich. Hasbart commissioned Raikes to print a newspaper in favour of the tory party, in opposition to the whig-leaning "Norwich Gazette". Raikes' newspaper was unsuccessful, and failed after a few weeks. By June, Raikes had moved to Huntingdonshire, where he launched the "St Ives Post Boy". On 2 May 1720, Raikes, in partnership with William Dicey, founded the "Northampton Mercury". A year later, the partners set up a second press in Northgate Street, Gloucester, from where the "Gloucester Journal" first appeared on 9 April 1722. In September 1725,