John Cleland (b. 1709 - 1789) was born in Kingston upon Thames but grew up in London, where his father was an officer in the British Army. He entered Westminster School in 1721, but he left or was expelled in 1723. He entered the British India Company and lived in Bombay from 1728 to 1740.
In 1748, he was arrested for a debt and committed to Fleet Prison, where he remained over a year. It was all...