aving been previously educated at Cheam under
William Day, and at Eton. He was called to the bar in 1705, and applied
himself to the study of municipal law; but three years later, on the
death of his father in 1708, who left him a large estate, he devoted
himself to the collection of books, manuscripts and pictures. His love
for books appears to have been early fostered by his grandfather,
Richard Tayler, who settled upon him, while a schoolboy at Eton, an
annuity of fourteen pounds per annum for his life to buy books with;
'which,' Hearne informs us in his Diary, 'he not only fully expended,
and nobly answered the end of the donor, but indeed laid out his whole
fortune this way, so as to acquire a collection of books, both for
number and value, hardly to be equalled by any one study in England.'
For some years Rawlinson resided in Gray's Inn, but in 1716, having
filled his four rooms so completely with books that he was obliged to
sleep in the passage, he was compelled to move, and he took lodgings at
London House, in Aldersgate Street, an ancient palace of the bishops of
London, but at that time the residence of Mr. Samuel May, a wealthy
druggist. Here he lived, says Oldys, 'in his bundles, piles, and
bulwarks of paper, in dust and cobwebs,' until the 6th of August 1725,
when he died, and was buried in St. Botolph's Church, Aldersgate Street.

Rawlinson was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the Society of
Antiquaries. He was also a Governor of Bridewell and Bethlehem
Hospitals. About a year before his decease he married his servant, Amy
Frewin, but left no issue.

Towards the end of his life Rawlinson became involved in pecuniary
difficulties, and he sold a portion of his collection by auction to meet
his liabilities. Prior to his death there were five sales, the first of
which took place on the 4th of December 1721, which realised two
thousand four hundred and nine pounds. But when he died an enormous
number of books were still left, and it required eleven additional
sales, which extended to March 1734, to dispose of them and the
manuscripts, of which there were upwards of a thousand. These sales
lasted on an average for more than twenty-one days each, but it should
be observed that they took place in the evening, generally commencing
at five o'clock. All Rawlinson's books were sold by Thomas Ballard, the
bookseller, at the St. Paul's Coffee House, with the exception of those
disposed of at the seventh and eight