Background
Robert Raikes was born on September 14, 1735 at Ladybellegate House, Gloucester, England. He was the son of Robert Raikes, a printer in Gloucester and proprietor of the Gloucester Journal and Mary Drew.
Robert Raikes was born on September 14, 1735 at Ladybellegate House, Gloucester, England. He was the son of Robert Raikes, a printer in Gloucester and proprietor of the Gloucester Journal and Mary Drew.
On the death of his father in 1757 he succeeded him in the business, which he continued to conduct till 1802. Along with some others he started a Sunday school at Gloucester in 1780, and on his giving publicity to the enterprise in the columns of his journal the notice was copied into the London papers and awakened considerable attention. For nearly thirty years he continued actively engaged in the promotion of his undertaking, and he lived to witness its wide extension throughout England. He died on the 5th of April 1811.
On December 23, 1767 he married Anne Trigge, with whom he had three sons 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.