According to the official account, the Stewarts were apprehensive of the result of the appointed conference, and resolved "to procure some trouble and unquietness in the citie", for the purpose of preventing it from being held. Three of them, it is alleged—Sir Walter, John, and Alexander—knowing that Sir George Elphinstone had arranged to shoot off an archery match at the Castle butts, on the evening of July 23, lay in wait for him near the Drygate with a band of some forty men close at hand at the Wyndhead—all "bodin in feir of weir", that is, equipped for a warlike expedition, with steel bonnets, secret armour, plait sleeves, longstaffs, and other weapons. As the Provost and his friends, who were but five in number and bore no arms but their unbended bows, reached the Drygate, one of them, James Forrett, left the party for the purpose of fetching some arrows from his house. Before he could reach it, Sir Walter, uttering insulting language, attacked him with drawn sword. By this time Sir George had reached the Castle gate, but hearing the altercation, he turned back and endeavoured to pacify the assailant with "fair and gentle" words. "Sir," he said, "I pray you to go youre way; no man sal offend you." His request was unheeded; and then, by the authority of his office, as Provost of the city, he commanded Sir Walter, in His Majesty's name, to go his way.
At this moment the alleged accomplices made their appearance on the scene, and "concurring together, maist cruelli and feirslie set upoun Sir George, and be force and violence drave him and his company back to the Castell porte, quhair he was fred and relevit of the present danger". Thereupon the Stewarts and their party retired to the Wyndhead, where they remained, whilst James Braidwood, by their direction, ran down the High Street, crying: "Arme you! arme you! They are yokit!" This brought up a reinforcement of some two score "airmed men of the seditious faction", headed by Sir Mathew Stewart. With united forces and "with grite furie", the rioters made an onset on the Castle gate, where the Provost was still in shelter. They were checked by the Earl of Wigtown, the Master of Montrose, and the Laird of Kilsyth, three of His Majesty's Privy Councillors, who happened to be at hand.
Being unable to get at Sir George with their longstaffs and weapons, they spitefully threw a volley of stones at him, then rushed tumultuously and apparently aimlessly, "doun the gait to the Barras yet, far beneth the Croce". The tumult, however, was not yet over. Once again the crowd made for the Castle gate, swollen by the accession of some 300 of the "rascall multitude", whom the prospect of plunder had attracted, and who, as they trooped on, indicated their intentions by calling out to each other, "I sall have this buith and thou sall have that buith". Before their arrival the Provost had been removed to the shelter of the Earl of Wigtown's mansion. An attempt was made to storm it; but the Privy Councillors again intervened, and succeeded in dispersing the rioters.
The Privy Councillors, to whose opportune intervention the quelling of the disturbance was mainly due, at once took vigorous measures to prevent the recurrence of outbreaks. The Lairds of Minto were confined by them to the Castle of Dumbarton, whilst Sir George Elphinstone and James Forrett were interned in that of Glasgow. On August 9th, the ward was changed in both cases to the town of Stirling, where the several parties were bound to remain under caution in sums ranging from 5000 merks to £5000, to keep the king's peace. Of the other persons implicated, some were charged to enter ward in Perth, others in Dundee. The 28th of the same month was appointed for the meeting of the Council in Stirling, "to tak tryell in this commotion of Glasgow". The venue was, however, subsequently changed owing to the breaking out of the plague.
It happened that a fortnight before the Minto riots, on July 9th, 1606, Parliament had passed an "Act for Staying of Unlawful Conventions within Burgh". The Glasgow disturbance was the first occurrence that called for the application of this Act. It was embodied in a "proclamation about Glasgow", issued by the Privy Council on July 31st. The preamble referred to the many good Acts of Parliament made by the king and his predecessors, with regard to the modest, good, and peaceable behaviour of the inhabitants within burgh, and to the staying of all tumults, unlawful meetings and convocations, "quhairby it is expressly prohibite and forbidden that all manner of persons within burgh, of quhatsumever rank, qualitie, or condition thai be of, presume or take upon hand, under quhatsumever cullor or pretext, to convein or assemble thaimselffis upon any occasion, except thai make due intimation of the lawfull causes of thair meittings to the Provost and Baillies of the burgh, and obtain thair licence thairto, and that nothing salbe done be thaim in thair saids meittings quhilk may tend to the derogation or violation of the Acts of Parliament, lawis and constitutions made for the wele and quietness of the said burghs"; and whereby also, "the saids unlawfull meittings, and the persons present thereat, are by the saids Acts of Parliament declairit to be factious and seditious; and all thair proceidings thairin to be null and of non availl, and the saids persons ordained to be punished in thair bodies and gear with all rigour". This was followed by a narrative of the recent disturbance between the citizens and the Magistrates—"A thing very undecent and unseamlie and without ony preceiding example in ony burgh within this kingdome". Then came instructions to the officers of arms to pass to the Mercat Cross of Glasgow and there, by open proclamation, "to command and charge the haill inhabitants of the said citie to lay asyde thair armour immediatelie after the publication heirof, conteyne thaimselfis in quietness, and behave them as modest, quiet, and peaceable citizens, forbearing to convocat or assemble upon ony occasion thaimselfis togidder fra this tyme furth, under quhatsumever cullor or pretext, without the knowledge, consent, and licence of the saids Magistrates, nor yit to do, practize nor attempt anything hurtfull or prejudiciall to the saids Acts of Parliament, lawis and constitutions of the said citie: certifying thaim that sall do in the contrair, that thai salbe repute, haldin, esteimit, perseuit and punisht as factious and seditious persons, perturbers of the peace and quiet of the said citie, with all rigour and extreamitie, conforme to his Hienes laws and Acts of Parliament made thairanent".
Complaints had been laid before the Privy Council, on the one side by the Provost and Magistrates of the City of Glasgow against the Stewarts and their abettors, on the other by Sir Walter Stewart of Arthurlie against Sir George Elphinstone and the friends who accompanied him on the eventful evening of July 23rd. Both cases were heard in Edinburgh on August 27th, 1606. With respect to that in which the opponents of the Corporation were the defenders, it was declared that those persons had committed a "verie grite insolence and ryot". For this they were condemned to be warded in the burgh of Linlithgow till His Majesty's will was made known concerning them. At the same time the Lords "assoilzed simpliciter" the Lairds of Minto, elder and younger, and all the other defenders, from forethought felony intended against the pursuers, and from the charge of "thair lying at await" for the Provost at the Wyndhead of the city, the pursuers having failed to prove that part of their complaint. On similar grounds, decree of absolvitor was pronounced in favour of Sir George Elphinstone and his fellow defenders in the suit brought against them at the instance of Sir Walter Stewart.
The King's pleasure was made known to his Privy Council in a letter dated from Hampton Court on October 1st, 1606. After expressing his astonishment that the information communicated to him was so scant as to render it impossible for him to "mak ony distinctioun of offendouris in that ryotte, that, according to the difference of thair faultis, directioun micht haif bene gevin for inflicting upoun several personis the moir mylde and moir hard punishment", His Majesty directed that the meaner offenders should be released, after being bound in "greate pecunnial sowmes for their due obedience to the Magistrates", but that the Lairds of Minto, elder and younger, should both be "fynned in great sowmes", and retained in ward until these were paid.
Such is the information to be gathered concerning an incident which is of sufficient importance in itself to be recorded with greater detail than is given in the local histories written before the publication of the Register of the Privy Council. Another circumstance that lends interest to the happily unique collision between the municipal authorities and the citizens, is the coincidence that it was the first occasion for the application of an Act to which, exactly three hundred years later, the Magistrates of Glasgow found it expedient to appeal for the staying of such "unlawfull conventions within burgh" as the mustering and parading of street bands.