Billerica

Billerica ( /bɪlˈrɪkə/) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,243 according to the 2010 census. It is the only town named Billerica in the United States and borrows its name from the town of Billericay in Essex, England. In the early 1630s, a Praying Indian village named Shawsheen was at the current site of Billerica. In 1638, Massachusetts Bay Governor John Winthrop and Lt. Governor Thomas Dudley were granted land along the Concord River in the wilderness which was called Shawshin by the local Native Americans. (Today, Shawshin is commonly spelled Shawsheen; see Shawsheen River.) Most of the settlement was to take place under the supervision of Cambridge; however, financial difficulties in...