Bedford Line Change of 1973

The Bedford Line Change of 1973 moved a strip of Bedford beside the Middlesex Turnpike, near the Burlington corner, into Billerica. It was the first change of Billerica's lines by law since 1767, when the farm of Edward Stearns was moved the other way (see Stearns Farm Transfer to Bedford). Between those dates the lines were kept, not moved: the selectmen walked them with the selectmen of each neighboring town, the stones were reset, and in the 1890s the Commonwealth surveyed and mapped every town line in the county.

State law required the selectmen of adjoining towns to perambulate their common lines every five years and renew the marks. The town accounts record the work: $16 for "perambulating town line" in 1865, and $15 each to Selectmen Coburn S. Smith, George F. Colson and Ebenezer Baker for "perambulating town lines" in 1886 and again in 1890. The lines walked in December 1894 were found wanting on the Chelmsford side, where "most of the bounds were found leaning badly and they were ordered to be straightened, and two new bounds set on Lowell and Billerica road under the supervision of Osgood & Snell." The same year the state's survey of the town boundaries of Middlesex County did its field work on Billerica's lines; it was checked in 1903 and published by the Harbor and Land Commission in 1907 as an atlas of the boundaries of Lowell and the towns about it, including Billerica, with diagrams of each corner monument. Nine granite corner markers were shown on the Carlisle line alone, and road stones marked the line where it crossed the highways.

The selectmen's reports give the names of the stones. In 1914 the board "perambulated the bound stones between Billerica and the towns of Carlisle, Chelmsford and the City of Lowell and the towns of Tewksbury, Wilmington, Burlington and Bedford, and find the same to be in good condition," and left the records with the town clerk. On October 27, 1920 the Billerica and Burlington boards visited the bounds B.B.B., B.B.1, B.B.2 and B.B.W. and found all in place but B.B.2; on November 21, when the Carlisle selectmen, notified in writing, "failed to appear," Selectmen Thomas F. Sheridan and Richard T. Perry walked the Carlisle stones B.C.C. and B.C.1 to B.C.9 alone. On November 4, 1925 Selectmen Thomas T. Clark and Maurice A. Buck and the Bedford selectmen found the twelve Bedford stones, BBB and BB1 to BB11WM, "all in place, and in order." In 1930 Selectmen Buck, A. Warren Stearns and John P. McBride and their neighbors went over every line, from the stones BCL and BLT, where Billerica met Chelmsford, Lowell and Tewksbury, to the ten Wilmington stones BTW and BW1 to BW9.

The last change was made by agreement with Bedford. A special town meeting on October 21, 1969 voted unanimously to let the selectmen, under Chairman Paul F. Newman, "enter into negotiations with the Town of Bedford, Massachusetts, for the alteration of the Common Town Boundary Line relative to a certain area of land located adjacent to the Middlesex Turnpike," and transferred $3,000 for engineering. The Joseph W. Moore Company of Bedford drew the plan, "Town Line Relocation Bedford-Billerica," dated October 19, 1971, and the annual town meeting of April 1973 voted under Article 12 to approve the change. The legislature enacted it as Chapter 916 of the Acts of 1973. The new line left the old one at a granite monument called Bedford-Billerica-1C, ran by new monuments 1B and 1A to a corner on the Bedford and Burlington line marked Bedford-Billerica-Burlington-1973, and returned along the Burlington line, so that the land between the old and new lines, beside the Middlesex Turnpike near the Burlington corner, passed from Bedford to Billerica. In October 1974 the Industrial Commission asked a special town meeting to rezone "land acquired from the Town of Bedford" from residence to industrial, but the article was dismissed because the Planning Board had held no hearing and it had not been advertised.

People

• Coburn S. Smith: Selectman paid for perambulating the town lines in 1886 and 1890.
• George F. Colson: Selectman paid for perambulating the town lines in 1886 and 1890.
• Ebenezer Baker: Selectman paid for perambulating the town lines in 1886 and 1890.
• Thomas F. Sheridan: Selectman who walked the Carlisle bounds on November 21, 1920.
• Richard T. Perry: Selectman who walked the Carlisle bounds on November 21, 1920.
• Thomas T. Clark: Selectman who perambulated the Bedford bounds on November 4, 1925.
• Maurice A. Buck: Selectman who perambulated the Bedford bounds in 1925 and the town lines in 1930.
• Albert W. Stearns: Selectman who perambulated the town lines in 1930.
• John P. McBride: Selectman who perambulated the town lines in 1930.
• Paul F. Newman: Chairman of the selectmen who submitted the 1969 article to negotiate a new line with Bedford.

References

1. Billerica town report 1865: payment for perambulating the town line, $16.00.
2. Billerica town report 1895, Selectmen: town lines perambulated December 1894; Chelmsford bounds straightened; two new bounds on the Lowell and Billerica road.
3. Billerica town report 1914, Selectmen: bound stones with Carlisle, Chelmsford, Lowell, Tewksbury, Wilmington, Burlington and Bedford perambulated; records with the Town Clerk.
4. Billerica town report 1920 (1920-1924 vol.): Selectmen's report on perambulation of town bounds, October and November 1920.
5. Billerica town report 1925 (1925-1929 vol.): Nov. 4, 1925 perambulation of the Bedford and Billerica bounds BBB, BB1 to BB11WM.
6. Billerica town report 1930 (1930-1934 vol.): Selectmen's report on perambulation, 1930, including the Lowell, Tewksbury and Wilmington stones.
7. Billerica town report 1969 (1969-1972 vol.), special town meeting of Oct. 21, 1969, Article 9: negotiate with Bedford to alter the town line by the Middlesex Turnpike; $3,000.
8. Billerica town report 1973, annual town meeting, Article 12: change in the Billerica and Bedford line approved, per plan 'Town Line Relocation Bedford-Billerica' of Oct. 19, 1971.
9. Billerica town report 1974, special town meeting of Oct. 21, 1974, Article 11: rezoning of land acquired from Bedford under Chapter 916 of the Acts of 1973; dismissed.