BILLERICA

A short history of Billerica

In the early 1630s, a Praying Indian village named Shawshin was at the current site of Billerica, commonly spelled Shawsheen today, as in the Shawsheen River. In 1638, Massachusetts Bay Governor John Winthrop and Lt. Governor Thomas Dudley were granted land along the Concord River in the area, and roughly a dozen families from Cambridge and Charlestown Village had begun to occupy Shawshin by 1652. The settlers chose the name Billerica because some of the families originally came from the town of Billericay in Essex, England. The town was incorporated as Billerica in 1655, on the same day as neighboring Chelmsford and nearby Groton. The original plantation of Billerica was divided during the colonial period into the towns of Billerica, Bedford, Wilmington, and Tewksbury. Though Billerica made it through King Philip's War (1675–1678) without any by Native American attacks, it would suffer several devastating raids during the 1690s.

The oldest remaining homestead in the town is the Manning Manse built in 1696, which was also the residence of William Manning (1747–1814), the author of The Key of Liberty, a critique of Federalist policies. Other notable Revolutionary War–era residents included Asa Pollard, the first soldier killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill, and Thomas Ditson, who was tarred and feathered in March 1775 while on a visit to Boston after attempting to illegally purchase the musket of a soldier of the 47th Regiment of Foot. The song "Yankee Doodle" supposedly became a term of national pride instead of an insult because of this event. The town now celebrates "Yankee Doodle Weekend" every September.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Billerica, Massachusetts, revision 1378496922 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.