Sexton

The Sexton in a New England town was the officer who took care of the meeting house and the burying ground and dug the graves. In early Billerica the town hired him: Hazen records that on 12th of the 12th month 1662 the townsmen agreed with William Haile "to keep ye meeting-house clean for 1 year for 20s", and that he also engaged "to digg ye graves for such persons as shall dye in this Town" at a shilling a grave. Haile served until his death in 1668 and was succeeded by John Trull.

In the 19th century the sexton of the town burial grounds was chosen by the town, and the town reports for the years 1894-1899 list Albert Stearns as Sexton among the town officers. Stearns was also the local undertaker who made the returns of deaths and was paid for burials of the town poor in the 1880s and 1890s. After the town elected Commissioners of Public Burial Grounds in 1899 the care of the town cemeteries passed to the Cemetery Commissioners, and no sexton appears in the officer lists after the report for 1900.

Sources: Hazen, History of Billerica (1883); Billerica annual town reports 1885-1900.