A Mob Broke Into the Tolbooth Jail and Removed Captain Porteous

Porteous Riots in Edinburgh take place after the hanging of a smuggler by the City Guard

James Macpherson Scottish translator of Ossianic poems born.

A mob broke into the Tolbooth jail and removed Captain Porteous

September 7, 1736 — A mob in Edinburgh stormed the Tolbooth Jail, forcibly removed Captain John Porteous, who had been reprieved from a death sentence after ordering his men to fire on civilians during a riot in April. The mob dragged him to the Grassmarket and hanged him from a dyer’s pole, carrying out their own form of justice.