collected ; the City Guard came promptiy on the
spot, and when the prisoner recovered from his
swoon he was safe in his old quarters, which did
not hold him long, however, as it would appear
from the old folio of Douglas. Peerage that he
escaped in his sister?s clothes. Yet as Lord Burleigh
died in 1713, Douglas in this matter seems
to confound him with his son, the Master.
Of all the thousands who must have been prisoners
there, recorded and unrecorded, on every conceiv-
The malt-tax, the dismissal of the Duke of Roxburgh
from his ofice as Scottish Secretary of State,
and the imposition of an intolerable taxation, the first
result of the Union, and the endeavours of the revenue
officers to repress smuggling, all embittered
the blood of the people. The latter officials were
either all Englishmen, ?? or Scotsmen, chosen, as
was alleged, on account of their treachery to Scottish
interests, and received but little support even
from local authorities. If in their occasional
INTERIOR OF THE SIGNET LIBRARY. (FWUI a Vinujublidud in 1829)
able charge, the stories of none have created more
excitement than those of Captain Porteom, of
Ratharine Nairne, and another prisoner named
Hay; and singular to say, the names of none of
them appear in the mutilated record just quoted.
Porteous has been called the real hero of the
Tolbooth. ?The mob that thundered at its
ancient portals on the eventfd night of the 7th of
September, 1736, and dashed through its blazing
embers to drag forth the victim of their indignant
revenge, has cast into shade all former acts of
Lynch h w , for which the Edinburgh populace
were once so notorious.? But the real secret and
mainspring of the whole kagedy was jealousy of
the treatment of Scotland by the ministry in
Lcndon
collisions with smugglers they shed blood, hey
were at once prosecuted, and an outcry was raised
that Englishmen should not be allowed to slaughter
Scotsmen with impunity.? At length these quarrels
led to and culminated in the Porteous mob.
The seaport towns with which the coast of Fife
is so thickly studded were at this time much
infested by Scottish bands of daring smuggiers,
many of whom had been buccaneers in the Antilles
and Gulf of Florida, and thus were constantly at
war with the revenue officials. One of these contrabandistas,
named Wilson, in revenge for various
seizures and fines, determined to rob the collector
of Customs at Pittenweem, and in this, with the aid
of a lad named Robertson and two others, he fully
succeeded They were all apprehended, and tried ;
The Tolboath] WILSON EXECUTED. 129
tVilson and Robertson were sentenced to death,
without the slightest hope of a pardon. While the
criminals were lying in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh,
by the aid of two horse-stealers, who were confined
in a cell immediately above them, they succeeded
in cutting the iron stanchels of a window, singing
psalms the while to drown all sound. One of
the horse-stealers succeeded in getting through the
.aperture, and the
other might have
escaped in the
.same way but for
the obstinacy of
Wilson, who insisted
on making
the next attempt.
Being a bulky man
.he stuck fast between
the bars, the
gudeman of the
Tolbooth was
speedily made
aware of the attempt,
and took
sure means to preclude
a repetition
of it. The character
of Wilson the
smuggler was not
without some no-
0le qualities, and
he felt poignant
regret for the selfish
obstinacy by
which he had prevented
the escape
,of young Robertson;
thus he
formed the secret
resolution of saving
his comrade?s
escape, which no one for a moment thought Qf
marring.
The success of this &ring achievement, though
it doubly sealed his own fate, removed a load of
remorse from the mind of Wilson, and excited so
much sympathy in his behalf, that it was currently
rumoured an attempt would be made to rescue him
at the place of execution. When the day for that
came-the 14th
April, 1736 -it
was found that the
magistrates had
taken ample precautions
to enforce
the law. Around
the scaffold was a
strong body of the
City Guard, while
a detachment of
the Welsh Fusiliers
-which young
Elliot of Stobs,
the future Lord
Heathfield, had
just joined as a
volunteer-was
under arms in the
principal street.
Vast multitudes
had assembled, but
their behaviour was
subdued and orderly
until the
terrible sentence
had been executed,
and the body
of Wilson swung
from the lofty gibbet
in the Grassmarket.
Then a
RELICS FROM THE TOLBOOTH NOW IN THE SCOTTISH ANTIOUARIAN MUSEUM. yell Of rage and
life, at any risk I, Girdle; z, Fetter-lack; 3, Padlock; 4 Staple; 5, Iron Gaud. execration burst
s f his own. On
the Sunday before the execution, according to the
astom of the period, the criminals were taken to
that part of St. Giles?s named the Tolbooth kirk, to
hear the sermon preached for their especial benefit,
?but under custody of four soldiers of the City
,Guard, armed with their bayonets. On the dismissal
of the congregation, Wilson, who was an
:active and powerful man, suddenly seized two of
the soldiers, one with each hand, a third with
his teeth, and calling to Robertson, ?Run,
Geordie, run!? saw, with satisfaction, the latter
knock the fourth soldier down, and achieve an
17
from the people,
who broke through all restraint, and assailed the
City Guard with every missile they could fmd.
The body of Andrew Wilson was cut down, and
an attempt made to carry it OK It was interred
at Pathhead, the burial register of which records
that ?? The corpse of Andrew Wilson, baker, son
to Andrew Wilson, baker and inn-dweller in Dunfiikier
(Qui mortuit GaJZflocio Edinbutgam), was
interred on the 5th April, 1736.? An old denizen
of Pathhead declared that he saw Wilson?s grave
opened, and could not but remark upon the size
and texture of his bones.
