Field Driver

The Field Drivers were minor town officers of colonial and 19th-century Massachusetts whose duty was to take up swine, sheep, horses, cattle and other beasts found going at large in the highways and commons, or trespassing on other people's land, and drive them to the town pound, where the Pound Keeper held them until the owner paid the fine and charges (or the animals were sold). The office descended from the colonial haywards and hog-reeves, and field drivers were chosen every year at the annual town meeting.

In Billerica the town reports list four field drivers for the years 1894-1896 (Isaac Hopkinson, Freeman Smith, Martin Conway Jr. and John Murphy), then two, and from 1907 the annual meeting simply voted that the constables serve as field drivers. From the report for 1909 onward the officer lists print a single heading, "Constables, Keepers of the Lock-Up and Field Drivers". The annual meeting continued to name the constables as keepers of the lock-up and field drivers until 1959; from 1960 the Article 2 vote names only the keepers of the lock-up, and the office of field driver lapsed.

Sources: Billerica annual town reports 1895-1960 (lists of town officers and annual meeting minutes).