2
These attacks upon coaches in Epping Forest, and
the Hanger to which pedestrians were exposed, became
so prevalent, that the people petitioned the King, for
protection from the hands of those miscreants ; who
haunted the tangled tracks through the Waltham Forest.
The dangers of those highways became so serious that
armed patrols, were regulated to watch and protect way-
farers along them. We may rightly suppose that
foremost in these attacks was the Essex band, and the
famous Gregory band at whose head was the notorious
Turpin. Red Rust, Fielder, Wheeler, Keys, Jeffries,
Russell and Swan, were a few of the highwaymen, not
to mention King, who lurked about the forest district.
Although desperate and daring enough aided by the
circumstances, they plundered where they could. They
did not however always come off victorious, one instance
of an attack upon the Norwich stage in the year 1775,
when two highwaymen were shot before the guard fell.
Again the Colchester coach was stopped by a body
of highwaymen on the Romford Road, in this case one
of the highwaymen was shot, the other more agile, suc-
ceeding in plundering the coach, but however some
time after was caught and followed the penalty of the
law at Tyburn in the year 1741.