Richard Rawlinson

Richard Rawlinson

Richard RawlinsonFRS(3 January 1690 – 6 April 1755) was anEnglishclergyman andantiquariancollector of books and manuscripts, which he bequeathed to theBodleian Library,Oxford.

Life

Richard Rawlinson was a younger son ofSir Thomas Rawlinson(1647–1708),Lord Mayor of the City of Londonin 1705–6, and a brother ofThomas Rawlinson(1681–1725), the bibliophile who ruined himself in theSouth Sea Company,at whose sale in 1734 Richard bought many of theOrientalia.He was educated atSt Paul's School,atEton College,and atSt John's College, Oxford.In 1714, he was elected aFellow of the Royal Society,where he was inducted byNewton.Rawlinson was aJacobiteand maintained a strong support for the exiled Stuart royal family throughout his life. In 1716 was ordained as a deacon and then priest in the nonjuring Church of England (seeNonjuring schism), the ceremony being performed by the non-juring Usager bishop,Jeremy Collier.Rawlinson was, in 1728, consecrated as a bishop in the nonjuring church by Bishops Gandy, Blackbourne and Doughty. On Blackbourne's death in 1741 he became the senior nonjuring bishop in London, and still maintained a congregation into the mid-1740s. He was particularly concerned with collecting the history and archives of the nonjurors, but later squabbled with his fellow bishops in continuing the succession with the consecration of Robert Gordon.

Rawlinson travelled inEnglandand on the continent ofEurope,where he passed several years, making very diverse collections of books, manuscripts, pictures and curiositiesof manuscripts, coins and curiosities, his books alone forming three libraries, English, foreign and Classical.

Rawlinson was a friend of the antiquarianThomas Hearneand, among his voluminous writings, published aLifeof the antiquaryAnthony Wood.

Towards the end of his life, Rawlinson quarrelled with both the Royal Society and theSociety of Antiquaries.Cutting the Society of Antiquaries from his bequests, he began transferring his collections to the Bodleian. Among his collection was a copperplate known as theBodleian Platedepicting structures inWilliamsburg,Virginia.A series of almanacs in 175 volumes, ranging in date from 1607 to 1747 arrived in 1752–55. At his death, Rawlinson left to the Library 5,205 manuscripts bound in volumes that include many rare broadsides and other printedephemera,his curiosities, and some other property that endowed a professorship ofAnglo-SaxonatOxford University.TheRawlinsonian Professor of Anglo-Saxonwas first appointed in 1795. He was also a benefactor toSt John's College, Oxford.

He died atIslington,London.

Richard Rawlinson is buried at St John's College, Oxford, allegedly holding the skull of Christopher Layer, an executed Jacobite. .Rawlinson RoadinNorth Oxfordis named after him.

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Rawlinson, Richard".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 929.
• Rawlinson Manuscripts,Bodleian Library,Oxford, UK.

Further reading

• Georgian R. Tash gian, David R. Tash gian, and Brian J. Enright (1991),Richard Rawlinson: A Tercentenary Memorial(Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications).ISBN0-932826-23-7.

External links

• Richard RawlinsonatFind a Grave