Robert Raikes
| Robert Raikes | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
14 September 1736 Gloucester, England |
| Died | 5 April 1811 (aged 74) Gloucester, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Philanthropist |
| Known for | founded Sunday school movement |
| Spouse(s) | Anne Trigge |
| Children | 3 sons & 7 daughters |
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. He was baptised on 24 September 1736 at St Mary de Crypt Church in Gloucester. On 23 December 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.
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. The movement started with a school for boys in the slums. Raikes had been involved with those incarcerated at the county Poor Law (part of the jail at that time) and saw that vice would be better prevented than cured. He saw schooling as the best intervention. The best available time was Sunday as the boys were often working in the factories the other six days. The best available teachers were lay people. The textbook was the Bible, and the originally intended curriculum started with learning to read and then progressed to the catechism.
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