Edinburgh City Guard attacks rioters

The hanging of a smuggler in Grassmarket, Edinburgh, on 14 April 1736 was the scene of a riot among the crowd who had come to watch.

When the body of the smuggler, Andrew Wilson, was cut down, the crowd turned nasty and the City Guard was called out. The captain, John Porteous, demanded that the crowd disperse, but his request fell on deaf ears. So he instructed his men to fire above the heads of the crowd, only for them to unintentionally shoot people in the windows of tenements opposite. A riot broke out and Porteous ordered the guard to shoot into the crowd, resulting in six deaths. Porteous was subsequently tried for murder, and found guilty. The government stayed his execution, but a mob broke into the prison and hanged him from a dyer’s pole.