Rawlinson, Richard, 1690-1755

Richard Rawlinson (1690-1755) was the son of Sir Thomas Rawlinson, wine merchant, and lord mayor of London in 1706. After being educated at St. Paul's school and Eton, Rawlinson matriculated at St. John's college, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner in 1708; he proceeded BA in 1711, MA in 1713, and received the honorary degree of DCL in 1719. He was FRS and FSA, and a Bishop among the Nonjurors (1728). In 1719-26 he travelled in Holland, France, Germany and Italy, gradually amassing a foreign, classical and English library, as well as coins. Rawlinson also bought extensively at London book sales between 1715 and 1755. When his elder brother Thomas, also a great book collector, died in 1726, Rawlinson catalogued his manuscripts, and secured a large proportion of them, including oriental volumes, at the sale of 1734. In 1750 Rawlinson founded an Anglo-Saxon Professorship at Oxford. Further details are given in the Dictionary of National Biography .

From the guide to the Oriental manuscripts of Richard Rawlinson, 15th?-18th century, (University of Oxford, Department of Oriental Collections, Bodleian Library)

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