Criminal Trials / Illustrative Of / The Tale Entitled / "The Heart Of Mid-Lothian" / Published From The Original Record / With A Prefatory Notice, / Including Some Particulars Of / The Life Of / Captain John Porteous.

.anon

Published by Archibald Constable & Co; Edinburgh; 344 pp.; ; Good; nc/1818, 1818

About this Item

_____ Thorough background of the sorry conclusion of a miserable life._____ John Porteous, after a disreputable early life, was made a Captain of the Edinburgh city guard._____ Apparently his chief qualification for this post was the fact that he was a pathological bully and everyone in the city was terrified of him._____ In this position of power Porteous gave free rein to his less noble inclinations, further alienating the citizens._____ . _____ This all came to a head immediately after the hanging of a thief named Andrew Wilson in 1736._____ The populace favored Wilson and stones were thrown at the hangman and guard._____ Porteous fired his flintlock into the crowd and ordered his guard to do the same, killing or injuring about 20 spectators._____ The city council ordered him arrested and imprisoned._____ Later that year Porteous was tried and condemned to death._____ Some time later a mob broke into the prison and lynched him._____ ._____Included here are the transcripts of evidence from the trials of Wilson, Porteous, and William MacLauclane an accessory to the lynching. _____ "Playing at golf." p.xii. _____ Concludes with a brief discussion of the trial of Nicol Muschett for the murder of his wife. _____ ._____Lacks the frontispiece of the Edinburgh toll booth. _____ In antique marbled boards, with leather spine and corners._____ ._____The front cover is free, the rear tenuous, the entirety well-worn._____. Seller Inventory # 23659

Bibliographic Details

Title: Criminal Trials / Illustrative Of / The Tale...

Publisher: Archibald Constable & Co; Edinburgh; 344 pp.; ; Good; nc/1818

Publication Date: 1818

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fair

Edition: 1st Edition