Porteous Riots
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (May 2018) |
The Porteous Riots surrounded the activities of
Riot
In April 1736 three convicted smugglers, Andrew Wilson, a "notorious
On 14 April 1736, Andrew Wilson and George Robertson were publicly hanged in the
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 acquittal
Porteous was arrested the same afternoon and charged with murder. On 5 July 1736, he was tried at the High Court of Justiciary. 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 that had earlier held Wilson and Robertson.
Events in Scotland alarmed the government in London, and
Public lynching
Public resentment grew in Edinburgh when word arrived that Porteous had received a reprieve. 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
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, 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, Queen Caroline and the Secretary of State Duke of Newcastle 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
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
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
See also
- John Porteous (soldier)
- Porteous family
- The Heart of Mid-Lothian(work by Sir Walter Scott)
References
Citations
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)