Robert Raikes of the population. As these schools preceded the first state funding of schools for the general public, they are seen as the forerunners of the current English school system. 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.
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