Background
Raikes was the son of Timothy Raikes, vicar of Hessle, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and his wife Sarah.
Raikes was the son of Timothy Raikes, vicar of Hessle, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and his wife Sarah.
On 1 October 1705, at the age of fifteen, he was apprenticed to the London printer John Barber.
He is noted as a pioneer of the press who was instrumental in bringing printing out of London and to the provinces. He was made a freeman of the Stationers" Company on 1 December 1712. In 1718 he was 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 Street Ives Post Boy.
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, Raikes and Dicey divided their partnership, Dicey retaining the Northampton press, and Raikes taking sole ownership of the Gloucester Journal press (now moved to premises in Southgate Street) and associated printing business.
Raikes" business thrived, despite a change in newspaper duties in 1725, and a number of brushes with the law over articles published under his authority.
In 1743, the Gloucester Journal was moved for a second time into larger premises in the Blackfriars area of Gloucester. Robert Raikes died at Gloucester, where he was buried in the church of Street Mary de Crypt. Raikes was married three times:
In 1722, to Sarah Niblett
In 1725, to Ann Monk
c.
1735 to Mary Drew
Two daughters, one each from his first two marriages, died in infancy.
With Mary, Raikes had six children: Robert, Mary, William, Thomas, Richard and Charles. Raikes" eldest son, also named Robert Raikes, founded and promoted Sunday Schools, and succeeded to his father"s printing business.