Maldon formed its branch of the Association for the prosecution of felons in about 1780.

The association raised funds by subscriptions from members and then should any of the members suffer from crime the association would offer rewards for the capture of the person responsible and provide some compensation for the loss. Association coverage included 20 miles from Maldon and so included the Dengie Hundred.

Quarterly meetings were held in the Kings Head Inn, Maldon with an annual meeting and dinner so that by 1785 the association had 56 members.

Article 4 of the association read :-There shall be paid out from the fund of the association all reasonable charges and expenses which shall or may attend apprehending and prosecuting such felon or persons as shall thereafter be guilty of cutting, destroying, stealing or carrying away any timber or other trees or any gates, posts, rails, poles, implements of husbandry, iron work, wheat, barley, oats, beans peas or turnips, stealing poultry of any kind, robbing orchards or gardens, cutting down, breaking or otherwise destroying any hedges, walls or other fences and of such other species of petty larceny and misdemeanors on the property of the said subscribers.

An example of the work of the association followed a burglary in September 1837 when the below reward was published in the Chelmsford Chronicle

The the coming of a trained police force the association proved less popular and by 1908 there were only 25 members, mainly from Maldon Town and the association slowly faded away.

Members from the Dengie Hundred in 1785/86 were -

Althorne - Joseph Franks and Joseph Wayland

Bradwell - Jonas Rolph

Burnham - Samuel Hews 

Creeksea - William Baker

Hazeleigh - Thomas Richardson

Latchingdon - John Laver, Joseph Sharp, Isaac Ruth, William Ruth and John Hunt

Mayland - James Page

Mundon - Richard Cawston

Purleigh - Thomas Shuttleworth, James Blakeley and Roger Cook

Southminster - Henry Laver and John Wade

St Lawrence - John Carter and William Sewell

Steeple - John Brown

Tillingham - Thomas Page

Woodham Walter - William Ruth, Thomas Aldham and J Boyce