The name given a mob that collected in the city of Edinburgh on the night of the 7th September 1736, broke open the Tolbooth jail, and dragged to execution in the Grassmarket one Captain Porteous, captain of the City Guard, who on the occasion of a certain riot had ordered his men to fire on the crowd to the death of some and the wounding of others, and had been tried and sentenced to death, but, to the indignation of the citizens, had been respited. The act was one for which the authorities in the city were held responsible by the Government, and the city had to pay to Porteous' widow £1500.