[6] He targeted heaths across England from Putney near London to Cornwall for 40 years in the 17th century,[7] taking significant gold from his victims.

His identity was discovered since he was a Sodbury farmer bearing 18 children with his wife who paid "any considerable sum in gold".

According to historian Jacqueline Simpson, this included speculation that he was hanged alive and starved to death, though this practice had been abolished by Elizabeth I a century earlier for being too barbaric.

[10] The name "Golden Farmer" was originally associated with John Bennet, but became associated with Davies after being mentioned as such in Alexander Smith's The History of the Lives of the most Noted Highwaymen, published in 1714.

[13] H. E. Malden wrote the Victoria County History in 1911, finding little of economic productivity or architecture in Bagshot to record other than its coaching inns, stating "Thirty coaches a day passed through, and there were many inns, since closed...The later history is full of the exploits of highwaymen, who found the wild country hereabouts specially favourable for their purposes".