Pound Keeper

The Pound Keeper had charge of the town pound, the walled or fenced enclosure in which stray and trespassing animals were impounded. Every Massachusetts town was required to keep a pound; the field drivers, or any person whose land was trespassed on, brought in beasts found at large, and the pound keeper fed and held them until the owner paid the damages, fees and charges, or until they were sold under the law. Billerica's first townsmen were charged in 1661 with maintaining the town's "meeting house, Amunitione, pounde, stocks, common highways, common herdes, and the like" (Hazen).

A pound keeper chosen at the annual meeting appears in the surviving town reports only for the years 1894-1896 (Isaac R. Stackpole, then Charles W. Sprowl). No pound keeper is listed from the report for 1899 on, although the pound itself survived: the warrant for the 1931 annual meeting asked the town to appropriate money "for the improvement of the Town Pound".

Sources: Billerica annual town reports 1895-1897 and 1931; Hazen, History of Billerica (1883).