Robert Raikes Robert Raikes Robert Raikes ("the Younger") (14 September 1736 – 5 April 1811) was an English philanthropist and Anglican layman, noted for his promotion of Sunday schools. Pre-dating state schooling and by 1831 schooling 1,250,000 children, they are seen as the first precursor schools of the English state school system. Raikes was born at Ladybellegate House, Gloucester, in 1736, the eldest child of Mary Drew and Robert Raikes, a newspaper publisher. He was baptised on 24 September 1736 at St Mary de Crypt Church in Gloucester. On 23 December 1767 he married Anne Trigge, with whom he had three sons
Thomas Raikes (dandy) caricatured by Richard Dighton as ""One of the Rake's of London"". Raikes' journal is notable for containing the memoirs of a man who counted among his friends some of the most influential men of his day, including Beau Brummell, the Duke of Wellington, Baron Alvanley, and Talleyrand. A four-volume 'portion' of the journal was published after his death, in 1856-7, and two volumes of "Private Correspondence with the Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington and other Distinguished Contemporaries" were published, edited by his daughter, in 1861. Raikes married Sophia Maria Bayly on 4 May 1802. Bayly was the daughter of