I once had Balbus spawn close(ish) to my Hearthfire home and wouldn't despawn. At first I thought this a nuisance as he would be easily killed when enemies spawned there, so I tried pushing him with my horse towards my Hearthfire home.

It took bloody ages but when he finally arrived Balbus took on permanent residence, he would mine, chop wood and do other tasks around my homestead. It really spruces up the homestead with more 'house staff'.

I even gave him a enchanted weapon and sure enough he helped my housecarl defend the property from bandits. It was at this point that I realised how useful this non-despawning 'glitch' was and have been trying it on other npcs. It also works on the freed prison woman.

BUT this method of slowly pushing the npc along is very time consuming. Does anyone know of a faster way/method to have a NPC follow you?

Would the mind controlling spiders work?

Are you a PC or console gamer? If PC, I would simply download a follower mod for desired character. Otherwise you might have no other option. Sorry mate.