Thomas Rawlins

Born about 1620, Rawlins appears to have received instruction as a goldsmith and gem engraver, and to have worked under Nicholas Briot at the Royal Mint.

In 1643 he prepared the badge given to the "Forlorn Hope", and received a warrant (1 June 1643) for making the special medal conferred on Sir Robert Welch.

He returned to England in 1652, and from that time till the Restoration earned a precarious livelihood, partly by making dies for tradesmen's tokens.

He engraved the town-tokens of Bristol, Gloucester, and Oxford, and produced dies for London tradesmen in Broad Street, Hounsditch, St. Paul's Churchyard, and the Wardrobe.

On 27 February 1657 he was in prison for debt at the "Hole in St. Martin's", and wrote for assistance to John Evelyn, whom he had met in Paris.

In 1640, Rawlins published The Rebellion, a tragedy that, according to the title-page, was acted nine days together and subsequently by the king's company of revels.