ABSTRACT
Robert Raikes (1735–1811) of Gloucester was not the founder of Sunday schools in the sense of being the first to originate teaching the young on the Sabbath Day. Nor was the foundation of Sunday schools in Gloucester his own unaided work, for he had several co-workers in this, particularly the Reverend Thomas Stock, then Headmaster of Gloucester Cathedral School. However, it was Raikes who publicized the movement through his letters and articles in the Gloucester Journal which he owned and edited and, as a result, it became a national voluntary enterprise rather than a local activity in a few areas.
