Lawyer. Loyalist.

Lived in New York (1778-81). Lived in England (1781-82).

Went to France and received a passport for America (1782). Admitted to the Philadelphia bar (1783). Became a member of the American Philosophical Society (1786). Joined Franklin’s Society for Political Inquiries.

Franklin allowed Rawle to copy the “Plan of Conduct” from his 1726 sea journal. No other manuscript survived, and Rawle’s copy became the basis of the first published version, from which all subsequent versions derive.

Born in Philadelphia. Married in 1783 to Sarah Coates Burge; had issue.