Porteous, who was said to have fired at the people with his own hand, was brought to trial and sentenced to death.
The sympathies of the people, and even, it is said, of the clergy, throughout Scotland, were so unmistakably on the side of the rioters that the original stringency of the bill introduced into parliament for the punishment of the city of Edinburgh had to be reduced to the levying of a fine of 2000 for Porteous's widow, and the disqualification of the provost for holding any public office.
The incident of the Porteous riots was used by Sir Walter Scott in The Heart of Midlothian.
Carlyle's memory recalled the Porteous Riots of 1736, and less remotely his friendship with Adam Smith, David Hume, and John Home, the dramatist, for witnessing the performance of whose tragedy Douglas He Was Censured In 1757.
None of which things matter much save in partially explaining the motives and expectations of Dr. Porteous in his somewhat spasmodic lecturing career.