Memorial to John Whitaker he opened a free Sunday School in Pickford Street, which accommodated about 40 children. In doing this he was inspired by Robert Raikes who had initiated the Sunday School movement, and by David Simpson, a local Anglican priest who had earlier provided schools for poor children in the town. Unlike most Sunday Schools, Whitaker's school was non-denominational. In 1814 he followed this by opening a much larger purpose-built Sunday School in Roe Street. The school was financed by public subscription and by the children paying a small weekly fee. Whitaker died in 1820, but the school continued to flourish, and
Harriet Raikes novel in English by a woman. 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