JOHN PORTEOUS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 May 1941, Page 6

JOHN PORTEOUS

HOW HE WAS PUBLICLY HANGED. He was hanged at last. r A remarkable story is his. Captain n of the Edinburgh city guard, a tailor’s e son. his end is minutely described in - Sir Walter Scott’s “Heart of Midlothd ian,” and it is interesting to know s that this unfortunate captain was not merely a fiction of the author’s mind, but a person of flesh and blood. ] In spite of the portraits which have been painted, and the stories that would persuade us ho was a swaggering bully, he seems to have been about the middle size though strong, I his look rather mild and gentle. He j was a keen sportsman, playing golf with tb.e gentlemen of the town, and ’ swearing shockingly. His rise to a position of importance seems to have turned his head, for he hobnobbed with ’ eminent men and became insufferable. In April, 1736, a public execution took place in Edinburgh—a smuggler being hanged. There was much excitement, and a rumour went through the city that the smuggler was to be rescued. Captain Porteous therefore took care to surround the scaffold with soldiers, and when a few stones were thrown he ordered his mon to fire — I with the result that several people were killed or wounded. For this rash action the blustering captain was tried and condemned to be hanged, but soon afterwards a re- | prieve was sent down. This so enragi cd a number of people in and about I the city Unit at dead of night, September 7. 1736, having first of all stolen the guard’s firearms, a body of disguised men forced their way into the prison, burning the door down, compelled the guard to surrender, entered Captain Porteous’s cell, and dragged him through the streets till they came to a hanging sign—from which (appropriately) they let him swing till he was dead. Oddly enough, the plotters were never brought to justice.