Robert Raikes and seven daughters. Their younger son William Henley Raikes became colonel of the Coldstream Guards, having fought for the British in the Napoleonic Wars. Their oldest son Reverend Robert Napier Raikes had a son General Robert Napier Raikes of the Indian Army. Robert was a pioneer of the Sunday school movement, although he did not start the first Sunday School. Some already existed such as that founded by Hannah Ball in High Wycombe which is the first documented known case. He inherited a publishing business from his father, becoming proprietor of the "Gloucester Journal" in 1757. He then moved the
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,