Set-off of Wilmington

Billerica lost the corner of its territory east of the Shawshin River, next to the Woburn line, to the town of Wilmington in two steps: through the act of September 25, 1730, which made Wilmington a town out of parts of Woburn and Reading and included a farm lying partly in Billerica, and through an order of the General Court in December 1737 annexing about six hundred acres east of the Shawshin. By Hazen's reckoning it was the only one of Billerica's losses that did not shorten the town's boundary.

The act of 1730 included in Wilmington the farm of Abraham Jaquith (Jaques), part of which lay in Billerica. When Wilmington claimed that part, the selectmen of Billerica petitioned the General Court that Billerica "may be continued in the uninterrupted possession of her ancient Bound," arguing that the act was never meant to set any part of Billerica to Wilmington, that no Billerica inhabitant had asked for it, and that only the part of the farm lying in Woburn had been intended. On April 12, 1733, the court ordered Wilmington served with the petition. After hearing Wilmington and Jaquith, the court put the question whether the words of the act relating to Jaquith's farm were intended to include the whole farm in Wilmington, and on June 13, 1733, it passed in the affirmative.

Other Billerica families east of the Shawshin were drawn to the Wilmington meeting-house, which was two miles nearer than Billerica's and could be reached without crossing the river, impassable at some seasons. On January 28, 1734, Wilmington voted "that the Bildrica neighbors on ye Est Side of Shawshin River be annexed to Wilmington Towne and Towneship, and to have full right in ye meeting-house and to all other Towne Priviledges," if the General Court saw fit, and on February 6, 1734, the court ordered Billerica served with their petition to be set off. Billerica's vote of January 1734 to set off Tewksbury had been made conditional on these same inhabitants joining the new northern town, and they did not.

A later petition to the town from several persons on the southeasterly side of the Shawshin, to be dismissed from Billerica and annexed to the second precinct in Woburn "in order to be Erected into a Township," was refused unanimously. The petitioners then went to the General Court: John Beard, Ebenezer Beard, Jacob Beard, Jonathan Baldwin, Peter Cornell and Richard Hopkins of Billerica, with Samuel Walker as agent for Wilmington, said that they lived at a great distance from Billerica's place of worship, that they had attended worship in the Wilmington meeting-house since it was built, and that at some seasons they could not cross the Shawshin, and they asked that the grant be made without reference back to Billerica. They proposed a line from the Tewksbury line where it crossed the Shawshin, up the river to the end of Ebenezer Beard's land and then on a parallel line so as to take in Richard Hopkins's farm. The House at first refused, but the Council gave a favorable hearing and in December 1737 ordered the petitioners, their families and estates set off from Billerica and annexed to Wilmington, on condition that they pay their proportion of the charge of the meeting-house Billerica was then building, as if the order had not been made. The House concurred. The printed resolves mark the order passed December 23, 1737; the Secretary of the Commonwealth's Historical Data dates the establishment of the line between Billerica and Wilmington December 27, 1737. Billerica had voted on September 15, 1737, to build its third meeting-house, which was raised in 1738.

Hazen puts the annexed section at six hundred acres. His genealogical register notes that the Beard, Baldwin and Hopkins families lived east of the Shawshin "in the part annexed to Wilmington." Hazen also records that Billerica thereby lost the short part of its ancient line with Woburn east of the Shawshin, "that corner east of the Shawshin having been granted to Wilmington soon after its incorporation." In 1756, answering a petition for a new town on its west side, Billerica listed "several hundred acres given to Wilmington" among the losses that had reduced it.

People

• Ebenezer Beard: Petitioner annexed to Wilmington in 1737; his land marked the proposed line
• Jacob Beard: Petitioner annexed to Wilmington in 1737
• Jonathan Baldwin: Petitioner annexed to Wilmington in 1737 (Hazen: lived east of the Shawshin in the annexed part)
• Richard Hopkins: Petitioner whose farm was taken into Wilmington in 1737

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 222: Jaquith farm question (1733), Wilmington vote, Beard petition, annexation of 600 acres in December 1737.
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 73: Woburn line corner east of the Shawshin granted to Wilmington; only change that lengthened the boundary.
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), genealogical register, Beard: family east of the Shawshin, in the part annexed to Wilmington in 1737.
4. Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, vol. 2, p. 566: act erecting Wilmington from parts of Woburn and Reading, 1730.
5. Acts and Resolves, vol. 11, p. 709: petition of the Billerica selectmen about Jaques's farm and Billerica's ancient bounds; order passed April 12, 1733.
6. Acts and Resolves, vol. 11, p. 726: order that the whole of Abraham Jaques's farm was included in Wilmington, passed June 13, 1733.
7. Acts and Resolves, vol. 11, p. 775: order of notice on petition of inhabitants east of the Shawshin to be annexed to Wilmington, passed February 6 (1734).
8. Acts and Resolves, vol. 12, p. 448: petition of John Beard and others and order annexing them to Wilmington, passed December 23, 1737, with meeting-house condition.
9. Historical Data Relating to Counties, Cities and Towns in Massachusetts (1920), p. 42: Billerica entry, part annexed to Wilmington June 13, 1733; bounds Dec. 27, 1737.
10. Historical Data (1920), p. 53: Wilmington entry, from parts of Reading and Woburn Sept. 25, 1730; part of Billerica annexed June 13, 1733.
11. Farmer, Historical Memoir of Billerica (1816), p. 17: Billerica's votes of September 15 and November 28, 1737 to build the third meeting-house, raised 1738.