Around 1637 John Winthrop and Thomas Dudley were granted approximately 2000 acres to start the "plantation." By 1653 there were 13 families. Today the area measures 25.96 miles with nearly 40,000 residents. Originally dubbed "Shawshine" by the Indians, the town adopted the name of its mother-town "Billericay" in Essex County, England and was incorporated on May 29, 1655.

The Revolutionary War and its aftermath spurred new industries, larger homes, and travel. Saw and grist mills were erected on a variety of brook and river sites throughout the town; woolen mills sprang up in the North Billerica area.

The Billerica of today has become a major regional employer, with a diverse business base which includes large corporations like Cabot and Jabil Circuit, side by side with coffee shops, Chinese restaurants, hairdressers, and drug stores, as well as two major hotel chains, Homewood Suites by Hilton (www.homewoodsuites.com) and Wyndham Billerica (www.wyndham.com). It is also the site of the Middlesex House of Corrections, a major employer in town.

*Summarized from documentation from Margaret B. Ingraham, Town Historian and from Gazetteer of Massachusetts, written by the Rev Elias Nason, M.A., in 1873.

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