It was originally published in four volumes on 25 July 1818, under the title of Tales of My Landlord, 2nd series, and the author was given as "Jedediah Cleishbotham, Schoolmaster and Parish-clerk of Gandercleugh".

He had the conception of The Heart of Mid-Lothian in his head by that date, and indeed it is possible that he had already produced the introductory chapter as early as April that year, but the main writing was done between January and July 1818.

The central business of Jeanie and Effie Deans was suggested by a true story sent (anonymously) by Mrs Helen Goldie of Dumfries.

For David Deans's rhetoric Scott drew extensively on the Covenanting lives by Patrick Walker (c. 1666–1745), and for English dialect he owed much to two compilations by Francis Grose: A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, of which he owned the third edition (1796) and A Provincial Glossary (1787).

The title of the book refers to the Old Tolbooth prison in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the time in the heart of the Scottish county of Midlothian.

It was about a certain Helen Walker who had travelled all the way to London by foot, to receive a royal pardon for her sister, who was unjustly charged with infanticide.

Scott put Jeanie Deans in the place of Walker, a young woman from a family of highly devout Presbyterians.

A young nobleman George Staunton (under the guise of "Geordie Robertson") leads a mob that storms the prison and lynches Porteous.

Volume 2 covers the trial of Effie, where she is unable to prove her innocence as she cannot produce the baby and had hid the pregnancy from her family.

Jeanie returns to Scotland, her father is given land to superintend by the Duke, and Butler receives a promotion which comes with a large increase in income.

Effie reveals that the son was not murdered but sold to a work gang by Meg, and that Staunton is in fact the criminal Robertson.

The long-lost son, who has been raised as a violent criminal, travels to Scotland and murders Staunton, before escaping to America to live with Native Americans.

Volume One Address by Jedidiah Cleishbotham, thanking his readers for their patronage and asserting his theological impartiality, being of Quaker descent.

1 Being Introductory: Peter Pattieson derives material for the present narrative from the conversation of two Edinburgh lawyers and one of their clients after their coach is upset at Gandercleugh.

4: The Edinburgh citizens react unfavourably to Porteous's temporary reprieve at the pleasure of Queen Caroline, acting as regent during George II's absence on the Continent.

5: Reuben Butler is upset to learn from Bartoline Saddletree and his wife that Effie Deans is accused of the presumptive murder of her baby.

8: While Butler is composing his spirits by walking beneath Salusbury Crags, the narrator devotes three chapters to filling in the family history.

The Deans and Butler families were both threatened with eviction by the old Laird of Dumbiedikes but reprieved by his son following his father's deathbed change of heart.

10: After her mother's death and the family's move to Saint Leonard's Crags, Effie became Mrs Saddletree's servant and was arrested for presumptive child murder.

11: Encountering Robertson in the King's Park, Butler is told to summon Jeanie to meet him at Nichol Muschat's Cairn.

3 (16): Jim Ratcliffe, onetime criminal, interrogates Madge Wildfire, who says that Robertson wore her clothes during the Porteous riot.

6 (19 [18 ctd]): After some weeks Middleburgh visits Deans, who decides to leave the decision whether or not to appear at Effie's trial to Jeanie.

13 (26 [25]): Prompted by Mrs Saddletree's reference to the royal prerogative to grant pardons, Jeanie prepares to make the journey to London.

3 (41 [40]): Journeying north with the Argyle family Jeanie witnesses at Carlisle Meg being hanged and Madge's death after being ducked by a mob.

9 (47 [46]): After the post-induction feast Effie and Staunton, now married, visit Jeanie in secret and confirm their intention to spend some years abroad.

11 (49 [48]): Jeanie receives a letter from Effie, now with a place in polite English society as Lady Staunton, and enclosing the first of a series of twice-yearly remittances.

13 (51 [50]): Jeanie forwards to her sister a copy of Meg's dying confession, received by chance, indicating that the baby son resulting from her relationship with Staunton was not killed.

Lady Staunton arrives at the manse: on a mountain excursion with her elder nephew David she is rescued by a wild lad, who is later identified as the Whistler, Effie's son.

Several reviewers found it remarkable that a simple country girl like Jeanie Deans could be rendered so interesting, and her interview with Queen Caroline was generally admired.

La Vendéenne, described by Francis Gribble as "a drama based on the plot of The Heart of Midlothian" was written for the stage debut of the celebrated French actress Rachel and was first performed 24 July 1837.