“A man in debt is caught in a net”

Entry in progress—B.P.
 
The proverb is cometimes credited to John Ray’s 17th century book of English proverbs, but it does not appear there.
 
   
Google Books
The Salt-Cellars:
Being a collection of proverbs, together with homely notes thereon
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
New York, NY: A.C. Armstrong and Son
1889
Pg. 26:
A man in debt is caught in a net.
 
29 December 1923, Trenton (NJ) Evening Times, pg. 14, col. 7 ad:
A MAN in debt is caught in a net. But he can extricate himself without any great difficulty by accepting the profits offered by the Times Classified Ads.
 
27 June 1932, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), proverb contest, pg. 17, col. 1:
A man in debt is caught in a net.
 
Google Books
The Folly of Instalment Buying
By Roger Ward Babson
New York, NY: Frederick A. Stokes Co.
1938
Pg. 106:
“A man in debt is caught in a net; yes, loans and debts make worries and frets.” — John Ray
   
Google Books
The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs
By Martin H, Manser, Rosalind Fergusson and David Pickering
New York, NY: Facts On File
2007
Pg. 181:
a man in debt is caught in a net Those who owe money are trapped by their obligations and at the mercy of their creditors: My father once told me, “A man in debt is caught in a net,” and on the basis of that advice I have never borrowed a cent from anybody.