Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

John Porteous ( – 7 September 1736) was a Scottish military officer who served in the Edinburgh City Guard and played a major role in the

Porteous Riots The Porteous Riots surrounded the activities of John Porteous (soldier), John Porteous, Captain of the City guard, City Guard of Edinburgh, Scotland, who was lynched by a mob for his part in the killing of innocent civilians while ordering th ...

, which resulted in his death.

Early life

John Porteous was born at The Glen, Quair Water, near

Traquair Traquair () is a small village and civil parishes in Scotland, civil parish in the Scottish Borders; Counties of Scotland, until 1975 it was in the county of Peeblesshire. The village is situated on the B709 road south of Innerleithen at . H ...

, in the

Borders A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...

, the son of Stephen Porteous, a

tailor A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century. History Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...

of the

Canongate The Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The street forms the main eastern length of the Royal Mile while the district is the main eastern section of Edinburgh's Old Town. David ...

, Edinburgh. Little is known of his early life, except that he soon found he was not suited to his father's calling. Having served in the

Scots Brigade The Scots Brigade, also referred to as the Anglo-Dutch Brigade or the Anglo-Scots Brigade, was an infantry brigade of the Dutch States Army. First formed in 1586, by the late 17th century it usually comprised six infantry regiments, three recruit ...

in the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

, in 1716 he became drill master to the Edinburgh force in anticipation of a Jacobite rising, and two years later was appointed as ensign to the

City Guard A city guard, city watch, town guard, or town watch were local militia companies formed to enforce municipal laws. Usually subordinate to the local municipal government, many cities had their own guard formations which doubled as police and mili ...

, and was promoted in 1726 to the rank of

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. Porteous seems to have been an overbearing official, despised by the mob and the underclasses of Edinburgh society. In 1724 he lost a wager of 20 guineas in playing a game of

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

Leith Links Leith Links is the principal open space within Leith, the docks district of Edinburgh, Scotland. This public park is divided by a road into two main areas, a western section and an eastern section, both being largely flat expanses of grass bor ...

against Alexander Elphinstone, the brother of

Lord Balmerino The title of Lord Balmerino (or Balmerinoch) was a title in the Peerage of Scotland; it was created in 1606 and forfeited in 1746 on the attainder and execution of the 6th Lord Balmerino in the Tower of London. The title of Lord Coupar or Cupar ...

. The wager attracted a small crowd, including the

Duke of Hamilton Duke of Hamilton is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in April 1643. It is the senior dukedom in that peerage (except for the Duke of Rothesay, Dukedom of Rothesay held by the sovereign's eldest son), and as such its holder is the pr ...

and George Douglas.

Riot

On 14 April 1736, three convicted smugglers, Andrew Wilson, William Hall and George Robertson, were arrested, tried and condemned to death. Hall's sentence was commuted to

transportation Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

for life, while Wilson and Robertson awaited their fate. A few days before the execution George Robertson was enabled by Wilson to escape from his guards while attending a service in St Giles', shouting "Run Geordie, run" as he held two officers and clamped his teeth onto the collar of a third. With the help of sympathetic supporters George Robertson eventually made his way to the

. The remaining convict, Andrew Wilson, was taken to be publicly

hanged Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

in the

Grassmarket The Grassmarket is a historic market square, market place, street and event space in the Old Town, Edinburgh, Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. In relation to the rest of the city it lies in a hollow, well below surrounding ground levels. Locati ...

, Edinburgh, on 14 April 1736. His body was cut down against the wishes of the mob, and the ensuing riot was such that the hangman had to be placed in protective custody. As the situation worsened, for fear of an attempt to rescue the victims, the

Lord Provost of Edinburgh The Right Honourable Lord Provost of Edinburgh is elected by and is the convener of the City of Edinburgh Council and serves not only as the chair of that body, but as a figurehead for the entire city, ex officio the Lord-Lieutenant of ...

instructed Porteous to call out the entire guard and to furnish them with powder and shot. After the execution, the mob became violent and began to stone the City Guard. Accounts of events are confused, but what is certain is that Porteous instructed his men to fire above the heads of the crowd, but in so doing, they wounded people in the windows of the high tenement buildings opposite. The crowd became increasingly violent and, as panic set in, Captain Porteous ordered the guard to shoot into the mob, which led to the deaths of six people in all.

Trial and appeal

Porteous was arrested the same afternoon and charged with

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

. He was tried at the

High Court of Justiciary The High Court of Justiciary () is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. The High Court is both a trial court and a court of appeal. As a trial court, the High Court sits on circuit at Parliament House or in the adjacent former Sheriff C ...

on 5 July 1736, where a majority of witnesses testified that Porteous had personally fired into the crowd on 14 April, although sixteen others said they had not seen him do so. Feelings were running high in Edinburgh and the jury unanimously found Porteous guilty of murder. He was sentenced to death, the execution was set to take place in the Grassmarket on 8 September 1736. Porteous was imprisoned in the Tolbooth prison, near St Giles church. Events in Scotland alarmed government officials in London, and

Sir Robert Walpole Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (; 26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745), known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British Whig statesman who is generally regarded as the ''de facto'' first Prime Minister of Great Britain, ser ...

attempted to influence events by asking his representative in Edinburgh to become involved. But he had miscalculated, underestimating the depth of feeling in Scotland. A formal appeal was petitioned and the execution was deferred.

Death

However, public resentment at a possible reprieve was such that a plot to kill Captain Porteous was hatched. On finding this out, the authorities in Edinburgh decided to increase the city guard at the Tolbooth. However, that evening just before this could happen, a four-thousand strong crowd gathered at Portsburgh, west of the city. The mob made its way across the Grassmarket to the Cowgate and up the High Street before converging on the Tolbooth where they overpowered the out-numbered guards. Porteous was dragged from his cell and paraded down

Lawnmarket The Royal Mile () is the nickname of a series of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. The term originated in the early 20th century and has since entered popular usage. The Royal Mile runs between two ...

, West Bow and onto Grassmarket. It was here that Porteous was brutally

lynched Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of in ...

up a short alleyway named Hunters Close. First he was hanged from a dyer's pole using a rope taken from a local draper's shop. After being choked for a while, the pole was lowered and he was stripped of his nightgown and shirt, which was wrapped around his head before he was hauled up again. However, as his hands had been untied to remove his clothes, this time he managed to struggle free. In retaliation his arm and shoulder were broken, and his foot set alight. After being hanged a third time, he was taken down again and viciously beaten before being hanged one last time. After the mob had dispersed, the battered body of Porteous was recovered by an armed detachment of the City Guard at around midnight on 7 September 1736. The location of Hunters Close where Porteous was brutally killed is today marked by a memorial plate erected in 2000 by the Porteous Association. The site of the Tolbooth is marked by paving stones arranged in the form of a heart, "The Heart of Midlothian". Tour guides will say that, even today, passers-by will spit on the spot, a tradition originally intended to demonstrate their contempt for the hated Tolbooth. Porteous was buried in

Greyfriars Kirkyard Greyfriars Kirkyard is the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located at the southern edge of the Old Town, Edinburgh, Old Town, adjacent to George Heriot's School. Burials have been taking place since the late 1 ...

, Edinburgh, on 9 September, near the westmost wall of the original graveyard. For more than two hundred years, the grave was marked by a small square stone with the single letter ''P'' and the date 1736. In 1973, this was replaced with a headstone of Craigleith stone, bearing the inscription "John Porteous, a captain of the City Guard of Edinburgh, murdered September 7, 1736. All Passion Spent, 1973".

Aftermath

The events in Edinburgh heightened the sense of alarm in London, where the government was concerned about the threat to its management of Scotland. It was thought by Walpole, Queen Caroline and the

Duke of Newcastle Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne was a title that was created three times, once in the Peerage of England and twice in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first grant of the title was made in 1665 to William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle, Willi ...

that Porteous had been unnecessarily sacrificed and there were even rumours that the conspiracy had involved the local city magistrates. Various Opposition proposals to disband the city guard and debar the Lord Provost were put forward, and these were the subject of much debate – the Scottish MPs and the government strongly opposed these proposals for constitutional reasons, and nothing was ever done. It was variously thought that Porteous' murder was carried out by friends of those who had been shot and killed, revenge by the smugglers, a Jacobite plot, or even a conspiracy by

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

extremists. However, the organisation of events seems to imply a degree of planning, thought to be the work of James Maxwell, an Edinburgh journeyman carpenter, together with a small group of city tradesmen and journeymen. Despite a reward of £200 offered by the government for information, those responsible for the murder of Porteous were never brought to justice. The events surrounding the

form part of the early chapters of the novel '' The Heart of Mid-Lothian'' by

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

(1818), where they are recorded in graphic detail.

Porteous and golf

John Porteous had been an early exponent of the game of

. It is recorded that in 1724, "A solemn match of golf: between the Hon. Alexander Elphinstone and John Porteous became the first match to be reported in a newspaper. Both players were said to have exhibited great skill, and such was the interest in the match that it was attended by James,

and George,

Earl of Morton The title Earl of Morton was created in the Peerage of Scotland in 1458 for James Douglas of Dalkeith. Along with it, the title Lord Aberdour was granted. This latter title is the courtesy title for the eldest son and heir to the Earl of Morton. ...

, as well as a large crowd of spectators. The wager was twenty guineas, with Elphinstone winning the match.

Notes

References

* Scott, Sir Walter.''The Heart of Mid-Lothian'', (1818) * ''The Encyclopædia Britannica'' (1911) * Lever, Sir Tresham. ''Sir Walter Scott and the Murder of Porteous'' (1971) * Porteous, Barry. ''The Porteous Story'', (Porteous Associates, 1975) * K.J. Logue. ''John Porteous'' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: University Press, 2005) {{DEFAULTSORT:Porteous, John 1690s births 1736 deaths Military personnel from the Scottish Borders Burials at Greyfriars Kirkyard Scottish soldiers Lynching deaths Scottish people convicted of murder People convicted of murder by Scotland Prisoners sentenced to death by Scotland Scottish murder victims People murdered in Scotland Prisoners who died in Scottish detention Scottish prisoners sentenced to death 18th-century Scottish military personnel 18th-century soldiers Scottish male golfers People associated with Edinburgh 18th-century Dutch military personnel