Jackie Crookstone

Aberdeen, Dalry, Galston, Strathaven, Freuchie, and Kirkintilloch all saw rioting as a result, and the government responded by sending in troops.

[2] In records compiled in 1844, a local historian noted the women of Scotland were outraged at the thought of their men being conscripted to fight in the army just as they had reached manhood and acquired a profession.

[3] Another source gives Crookstone a larger role in the events, saying she organised a protest march on 28 August 1797 with other women from nearby villages, and used a drum beat to call out the slogan "no militia" in an attempt to intimidate local landowners and justices on the ballot committee.

There was a protest, and soldiers who had been confined to the John Glens public house in Tranent broke out the back door and adopted a "shoot to kill" policy against the populace, who were allegedly armed with sharp sticks and stones.

[3][5][6] The Lord Advocate, Robert Dundas, decided not to indict the soldiers for shooting unarmed civilians because "such a dangerous mob as deserved more properly the name of an insurrection.