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

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 Captain John Porteous (c. 1695 – 1736), Captain of the City Guard of Edinburgh, Scotland, who was lynched by a mob for his part in the killing of innocent civilians while ordering the men ...

, which resulted in his death.

Early life

John Porteous was born at The Glen,

Quair Water The Quair Water is a tributary of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. Its name is related to Traquair. Etymology The name ''Quair'' has a Brittonic etymology. It may be derived from the element ''*wejr'' (<''*wẹ:drā'')

, near

Traquair Traquair ( gd, Cille Bhrìghde) 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 Inn ...

, in the

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, 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. It began ...

, 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, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

, 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, was a law enforcement and security formation found in many countries and historical periods, usually subordinate to the local municipal government. Historically, many cities had their own gua ...

, 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 of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. 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 clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

Leith Links Leith Links ( gd, Fìghdean Lìte) 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 ...

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 w ...

. 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 Dukedom of Rothesay held by the Sovereign's eldest son), and as such its holder is the premier peer of Sco ...

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 movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...

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 the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...

in the Grassmarket, 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 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, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

. He was tried at the High Court of Justiciary 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 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 murder Captain Porteous was hatched, and when the authorities heard of this, it was decided to increase the guard at the Tolbooth prison. However, on the evening before this was due to happen, a large crowd of over four thousand gathered at Portsburgh, west of the city. Making their way across the Grassmarket to the Cowgate and up the High Street, the mob converged on the Tolbooth, where they were eventually able to overpower the guards. Porteous was dragged from his cell and up the Lawnmarket towards the West Bow and the Grassmarket, where he was lynched from a dyer's pole, using a rope taken from a local draper's shop. After a short while, he was dragged down and stripped of his nightgown and shirt, which was then wrapped around his head before he was hauled up again. However, the mob had not tied his hands and, as he struggled free, they broke his arm and shoulder, while another attempted to set light to his naked foot. He was taken down a further time and cruelly beaten before being hung up again. He died a short while later, just before midnight on 7 September 1736. The spot where Porteous died is today marked by a memorial plate in the Grassmarket. 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, 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 Marquess of Newcastle u ...

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. Porteous gravestone, Greyfriars Edinburgh

Porteous gravestone, Greyfriars Edinburgh

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 part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

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 ''The Heart of Mid-Lothian'' is the seventh of Sir Walter Scott's Waverley Novels. It was originally published in four volumes on 25 July 1818, under the title of ''Tales of My Landlord, 2nd series'', and the author was given as "Jedediah Clei ...

'' by

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

(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 1695 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 people 18th-century soldiers Scottish male golfers People associated with Edinburgh 18th-century Dutch military personnel