Thomas Raikes

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Thomas Raikes
Born28 March 1741
Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England
Died29 December 1813(1813-12-29) (aged 72)
Stanwell House, Middlesex
Occupation(s)Businessman
Banker
Newspaper owner
Spouse
Charlotte Finch
(m. 1774)
Children9
RelativesHenry Raikes (son)
Thomas Raikes (son)
Robert Raikes (brother)
William Raikes (brother)

Thomas Raikes ("the Elder") (28 March 1741 – 29 December 1813) was a British merchant particularly trading from London with Russia,[1] a banker and newspaper proprietor. Notably, he was Governor of the Bank of England during the 1797 currency crisis, when the Bank was prohibited by the British Government from paying out in gold.

Biography

Raikes was born at Gloucester in 1741, third son of Robert Raikes the Elder and Mary Drew. His brothers included Robert Raikes, the founder and promoter of Sunday schools, and William Raikes, a director of the South Sea Company.

Government prohibited the Bank from paying out in gold and ordered the use of banknotes
instead.

Thomas Raikes was a personal friend of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, and of William Wilberforce, the leader of the campaign against the slave trade.

Raikes died at Stanwell House, Middlesex 29 December 1813.

Family

On 8 December 1774 at St George's, Bloomsbury, London, Raikes married Charlotte, daughter of Henry Finch, and granddaughter of Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham.[2] With Charlotte he had four sons and five daughters. Their eldest son Thomas became a noted London diarist; another son, Henry, became a churchman, eventually Chancellor of the Diocese of Chester. One of their daughters, Georgiana (d. 2 December 1861), married Lord William FitzRoy.

Charlotte Raikes, wife of Thomas Raikes, portrait by George Romney

References

Notes
  1. ^ Page 9 of Robert Raikes Journalist & Philanthropist by Alfred Gregory, published by Hodder and Stoughton 1880
  2. ^ Pages 5 and 13 of Pedigree of Raikes published 1930 by Phillimore, London
Bibliography
Government offices
Preceded by Governor of the Bank of England
1797–1799
Succeeded by