Returning to London, he concentrated on municipal law, but succeeded to a large estate on the death of his father in 1708.
He resided for some years in Gray's Inn, where his accumulation of books compelled him to sleep in a passage.
He married, on 22 September 1724, his servant Amy Frewin, formerly a maid at a coffee-house in Aldersgate Street, and died without issue at London House on 6 August 1725.
His sole publication under his own name was a copy of verses in the Oxford University Collection on the death of the Duke of Gloucester in 1700.
Of these sales the first six were arranged for by Rawlinson himself (though the sixth took place after his death), and (according to William Oldisworth's account to Hearne) were linked to losses in the South Sea Bubble;[2] the remainder by his brother Richard.
The pictures, including a crayon portrait of the collector by his brother Richard, were sold by Ballard at the Two Golden Balls, Hart Street, Covent Garden, on 4 and 5 April 1734.