17. The founder of Boston’s first circulating library went to debtor’s prison, with John Hancock one of his creditors
John Mein of Edinburgh, Scotland, learned the bookselling trade before relocating to Boston, Massachusetts in 1764. There he published a catalog of the books available for loan in his shop. He named his shop The London Bookstore, and both sold and loaned books, as well as sold beer he imported from Scotland. He also published a newspaper, The Boston Chronicle, in which he supported the Loyalists against the rising patriotic fervor in Boston. His political views alienated him from many influential Bostonians, including John Hancock. In 1769 Hancock received a letter from Mein’s book supplier in London, asking him to recommend an agent to help him procure payments for debts owed by Mein. Hancock happily took the role himself.
Mein, meanwhile traveled to England, where he promptly went to debtor’s prison, spending a year in King’s Bench Prison. In Boston, Hancock hired John Adams as his attorney and obtained an attachment on Mein’s property, including the newspaper he found so annoying. Hancock sold the properties for about half of the total debt owed by Mein. The latter returned to Boston upon release from prison, only to find his properties disposed of, and was imprisoned again for the remainder of the debt. Mein eventually returned to London, where he died penniless. Adams and Hancock, two major proponents of American liberty, thus used the courts to dispose of a perceived enemy for exercising his right to freedom of the press.