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.

Raikes was Governor of the Bank of England from 1797 to 1799, during the crisis of 1797 when war had so diminished gold reserves that the 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.

On 8 December 1774 at St George's, Bloomsbury, London, Raikes married Charlotte, illegitimate daughter of Hon.

One of their daughters, Georgiana (d. 2 December 1861), married Lord William FitzRoy, son of 3rd Duke of Grafton.