Public Weigher

The Public Weighers were appointed each year by the selectmen to weigh hay, coal and other goods sold by weight and to certify the weights under oath. In 1922 the selectmen appointed weighers "for the year ending April 30th", and the oath of a newly appointed weigher was recorded by the town clerk. The town kept hay scales at the Centre and at North Billerica: in the 1860s C. H. Parker, the town weigher, turned the weighing fees over to the town, and in the 1880s the reports record payments to the town for use of the hay scales by H. M. Hutchins and by the firm of Hutchins & Wilson. The scales were sealed by the Sealer of Weights and Measures.

Three weighers were appointed in the 1890s; the number grew to eight in 1906 and to a dozen by 1914, most of them presumably weighing goods for local dealers, though the town reports do not name the businesses they worked for. The officer lists stop naming public weighers after the 1950 report.