Constituency Dates
Northallerton 1710 – 1713
Family and Education
bap. 1 Nov. 1683, 1st s. of Robert Raikes of Northallerton by Anne, da. of William Davy of Northallerton. educ. G. Inn 1700, called 1707, bencher 1728. m. 10 May 1720, Mary, da. of Robert Ellis, MB, of Sigglesthorne, Yorks. by Elizabeth, da. of Rev. Christopher Fulthorpe of Tunstall, co. Dur. and assumed additional name of Fulthorpe, 2s. (1 d.v.p.) 1da. suc. fa. 1710.1 J. Foster, Raikes Ped. 6; J. C. D. Ingledew, Northallerton, 200.
Offices Held

Dep.–steward, Northallerton 1708–14.2 J. L. Saywell, Northallerton, p. xxxi.

Address
Main residence: Northallerton, Yorks.
biography text

Raikes should not be confused with his relations, Robert Raikes, the proprietor of the Gloucester Journal, and his son, also Robert Raikes, who was the promoter of Sunday schools. Raikes’s own father, an attorney in Northallerton and deputy-steward of that borough, was involved in an Exchequer bills fraud in 1704.3 Ibid.; Cal. Treas. Bks. xix. 14–15.

Returned for Northallerton at the general election of 1710, Raikes was classed in error as a Tory in the ‘Hanover list’. A Yorkshire correspondent of Robert Harley* reported on 5 Dec.:

Mr Raikes is a barrister of Gray’s Inn, but some say more conversant with ladies than law books; an attorney’s son of Northallerton. His father left him assets to the value of 5 or 600 pounds, and used often to say that he should go to the D[evi]l to leave young Robin an estate, and some say young Robin will not scruple to go the same way to increase it, and that though he is something extravagant his conscience is not more strait-laced than his father’s. He is a famous jockey, talks much in company that are his equals or inferiors, but how well I shall leave others to judge that can do it better. He is a declared Whig but ’tis reasonable to believe from part of his character that he would soon prove a comeover if it should be thought worth while to make him one.

However, there is no evidence that Harley tried to buy Raikes, who proved to be an inactive Member. In the 1713 session he voted on 18 June against the French commerce bill, when he was classed as a Whig. He did not stand for Parliament again. He died on 20 June 1753, aged 69.4 HMC Portland, iv. 641; Speck thesis, 84–85; Robbins thesis, 203.

Author
E.C.
C.I.M.
Volume
Commons 1690-1715
Alternative Surnames
RAIKES FULTHORPE
Notes
  • 1. J. Foster, Raikes Ped. 6; J. C. D. Ingledew, Northallerton, 200.
  • 2. J. L. Saywell, Northallerton, p. xxxi.
  • 3. Ibid.; Cal. Treas. Bks. xix. 14–15.
  • 4. HMC Portland, iv. 641; Speck thesis, 84–85; Robbins thesis, 203.