Cemetery Commissioner

The Cemetery Commissioners (later the Cemetery Commission) have charge of Billerica's town burial grounds. Before 1899 the cemeteries were looked after by informal committees: in the 1899 town report J. Nelson Parker, Joseph Jaquith and Herbert A. King signed "An Appeal for Our Cemeteries" for the North, South and Fox Hill cemetery committees. The warrant for the March 1899 annual meeting asked the town to adopt Chapter 264 of the Acts of 1890, "An act relating to Public Cemeteries," and to elect by ballot three Commissioners of Public Burial Grounds, one each for three, two and one years. The town did so, and the moderator cast one ballot electing Parker for one year, Jaquith for two and King for three. Thereafter one commissioner was elected each year for a three-year term, an arrangement confirmed in a 1905 town meeting vote fixing the number and terms of town officers. Vacancies were filled by a joint meeting of the Select Board and the remaining commissioners (as when A. Warren Stearns replaced the late J. Nelson Parker in July 1921) until the next election.

The commission's work centered on Fox Hill Cemetery (established 1856), which it repeatedly expanded (land purchases voted in 1917, development in the 1960s, and the extension between Jones Brook and the old cemetery approved in 1976), along with the North Cemetery, the South Burying Ground and the smaller grounds. In 1976, at the commission's request, the Billerica Historical Commission fixed the official names and founding dates of the six town cemeteries: South Burying Ground (1663), Old Corner Burying Ground (1707), Rogers Family Plot (1803), North Cemetery (1816), Hill Cemetery (1828) and Fox Hill Cemetery (1856). The commissioners managed perpetual-care and sale-of-lots funds and chose a Superintendent of Cemeteries (Harry Essex in the 1930s, John W. Bicknell until 1966, and Charles O. Faria from 1976).

The commission was elected until the home rule charter approved in March 1979. Under the charter it became a board of three members appointed by the Town Administrator (later the Town Manager) for staggered three-year terms ending June 30; James M. Battcock, the last elected member, resigned in April 1980 and Andrew J. Bowen was reappointed that month. Effective July 1, 1999, the Cemetery Department was merged with the Parks and Trees Division to form the Cemetery, Parks and Trees Division of the Department of Public Works (see Director of Public Works), which has since done the day-to-day cemetery work; the appointed Cemetery Commission continued as a three-member board and still existed in 2025.

Sources: Billerica annual town reports 1899-2025 (warrants, election returns, lists of town officers, reports of the Cemetery Commissioners, and memorials).