The Porteous Riots surrounded the activities of John Porteous, Captain of the City Guard of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, who was lynched by a mob for his part in the killing of innocent civilians while ordering the men under his command to quell a disturbance during a public hanging 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 in April 1736. Although the rioters were generally supportive of the convicted smugglers, Porteous seems to have been a somewhat overbearing official, despised by the mob and the

underclass The underclass is the segment of the population that occupies the lowest possible position in a social class, class hierarchy, below the core body of the working class. This group is usually considered cut off from the rest of the society. The g ...

es of Edinburgh society.

Riot

In April 1736 three convicted smugglers, Andrew Wilson, a "notorious

smuggler Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...

", William Hall and George Robertson, had been tried and condemned to death. While Hall's sentence was commuted to exile, Wilson and Robertson awaited their fate in the condemned cell at Edinburgh's notorious Tolbooth Prison next to St Giles Cathedral. A few days before their execution the pair tried to escape. Wilson removed a bar from the cell window but became stuck "being a very stout man" and blocked Robertson's escape. On 14 April 1736, Andrew Wilson and George Robertson were publicly hanged in the

. However, when the body of Wilson was cut down by a sailor, Captain Porteous of the City Guard reacted by grabbing a musket and firing at the sailor. Unfortunately he missed and killed a man standing behind in the crowd. Porteous ordered the City Guards to fire on the enraged crowd, killing a further five people. In the ensuing riot, the hangman, Porteous, and the city guards sought refuge in the City Guardhouse on the

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

where the situation worsened. This prompted the

Lord Provost A lord provost () is the convenor of the local authority, the civic head and the lord-lieutenant of one of the principal cities of Scotland. The office is similar to that of a lord mayor. Only the cities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Stirlin ...

of Edinburgh to instruct Captain Porteous to call out the entire City Guard, furnish them with powder and shot, and ensure the guardhouse was not stormed by the rioters. Accounts of events that followed are confusing but what is certain is that Captain Porteous initially instructed his troops to fire above the heads of the crowd. However, in so doing, they wounded people in the windows of the surrounding tenement buildings which just made the crowd even more violent. As panic set in, Porteous ordered the City Guard to shoot directly into the mob which led to the deaths of another six people. However, the rioters retreated and the streets quietened.

Conviction and deferment of execution

Porteous was arrested the same afternoon and charged with murder. On 5 July 1736, 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 ...

. 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 when the jury unanimously found Porteous guilty of murder. He was sentenced to death and the execution was set to take place in the Grassmarket on 8 September 1736. Porteous was imprisoned in the same condemned cell in the

Tolbooth A tolbooth or town house was the main municipal building of a Scotland, Scottish burgh, from medieval times until the 19th century. The tolbooth usually provided a council meeting chamber, a court house and a jail. The tolbooth was one of th ...

that had earlier held Wilson and Robertson. Events in Scotland alarmed the government in London, and Sir Robert Walpole attempted to influence events by asking his representative in Edinburgh to become involved. A formal appeal was petitioned to Queen Caroline, who ordered the execution to be deferred by six weeks, pending the return of the king from Hanover. But Walpole had miscalculated, underestimating the depth of feeling in Scotland.

Public lynching

The deferment of the sentence caused public resentment in Edinburgh, with people mistakenly believing that Porteous had been fully reprieved. The city authorities increased the guard at the Tolbooth prison when they learned that there was a plot to lynch the imprisoned Captain. However, the evening before it was due to happen, a mob of more than four thousand gathered at Portsburgh, west of the city. They made their way across the

to the

Cowgate The Cowgate (Scots language, Scots: The Cougait) is a street in Edinburgh, Scotland, located about southeast of Edinburgh Castle, within the city's World Heritage Site. The street is part of the lower level of Edinburgh's Old Town, Edinburgh, ...

and up to the

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

before converging on the Tolbooth. Eventually the mob was able to overpower the guards and Porteous was dragged from his cell up the Lawnmarket to the West Bow and down to the Grassmarket. It was there that he was hanged from a dyer's pole using a rope taken from a local draper's shop. After a short while Porteus was pulled down and stripped naked. His nightgown and shirt were then wrapped around his head before he was hanged again. However, as his hands were untied, he was able to struggle free. Some of the mob began beating him savagely, breaking his arm and shoulder and an attempt was made to set his naked foot alight. He was hauled up again and hung and died a short while later just before midnight on 7 September 1736. He 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, the following day.

Aftermath

The events in Edinburgh heightened the sense of alarm in London, where the government was concerned about its control of Scotland. Prime Minister

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 Whigs (British political party), Whig statesman who is generally regarded as the ''de facto'' first Prim ...

, Queen Caroline and the Secretary of State

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 ...

thought that Porteous had been unnecessarily sacrificed to appease the mob and there were even rumours that the local city magistrates had been involved in the conspiracy. In February 1737 a parliamentary inquiry was held in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

, It initially proposed the disbanding of the City Guard and removal of Netherbow Port, but these proposals were subsequently dropped. Eventually, the only punishments enforced were a £2,000 fine imposed on the city (used to support Porteous' widow) and the disbarment from all offices of the

, Alexander Wilson. 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 being made available by the government for information, those responsible for the murder of Porteous were never found.

Legacy

The final resting place of John Porteous in Greyfriars Kirkyard had for more than two hundred years been marked by a small square stone engraved with the single letter "P" and the date 1736. More recently, this has been 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." The spot where Porteous died in the Grassmarket is today marked by a memorial plate. The site of the notorious Tolbooth prison is marked by paving stones arranged in the form of a heart, known as the Heart of Midlothian. Even today, passers-by will spit on the spot, a tradition originally intended to demonstrate their contempt for the hated Tolbooth. A fictionalised account of the lynching forms part of the early chapters of the novel '' The Heart of Midlothian'' 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).

References

Sources

* Scott, Sir Walter.''The Heart of Mid-Lothian'', (1818) includes a fictionalised account of the lynching. * ''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) {{Authority control 1730s in Edinburgh 1736 in Scotland 1730s riots Conflicts in 1736 Caroline of Ansbach Old Town, Edinburgh Riots and civil disorder in Scotland Robert Walpole 1730s crimes in Europe