Rawlinson, Richard (1690 -1755)

Richard Rawlinson was the fourth son of Sir Thomas Rawlinson, Lord Mayor of London, and Mary, eldest daughter of Richard Taylor of Turnham Green in Middlesex. His brother was the great book collector Thomas Rawlinson, at whose sales he was one of the largest purchasers. He was educated at St Paul's, Eton and St John's College, Oxford, where he matriculated as a gentleman commoner 9 March 1708, graduated B.A. 10 October 1711 and M.A. on 5 July 1713. A staunch nonjuror and Jacobite he was ordained in September 1716 by Bishop Jeremy Collier, but devoted himself to antiquarian studies, travelling all over the midland and southern counties in 1718 1719, and spent the years 1719 1726 travelling on the Continent. The death of his brother Thomas brought him back, and in 1728 he was created a bishop among the nonjurors. He concealed his office as far as possible, and indeed even the fact of his ordination. On his death he left an endowment for a Professorship of Anglo Saxon at Oxford, a munificent bequest of books and manuscripts to the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and some books and money to St John's. The rest of his collections were sold at auction by S. Baker 29 March 1756 and 3 March 1757. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society 29 June 1714 and of the Society of Antiquaries 24 May 1727. An odd character, he made strange conditions for his endowments. The holders were not to be Scottish or Irish, not to hold the degree of Doctor in any faculty, and not to be Fellows of the Royal Society or Society of Antiquaries.