Benjamin Tasker, Jr.

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Benjamin Tasker, Jr.

Birthdate:
Birthplace: Annapolis, Md.
Death: October 17, 1760 (39)
Annapolis, Md.
Place of Burial: Annapolis, Md.
Immediate Family:

Son of Hon. Benjamin Tasker, Sr. and Ann Tasker
Brother of William Tasker; Thomas Tasker; Bladen Tasker; Anne Nancy Ogle; Rebecca Dulaney and 4 others

Occupation: Slave Trader
Managed by: Dan Cornett
Last Updated:

About Benjamin Tasker, Jr.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Tasker,_Jr.

Colonel Benjamin Tasker, Jr. (1720 – October 17, 1760) was a politician in colonial Maryland, and Mayor of Annapolis from 1754 to 1755. He was the son of Benjamin Tasker, Sr., Provincial Governor of Maryland from 1752 to 1753 and Mayor of Annapolis on many occasions.

Early life

Benjamin Tasker, Jr. was born in Maryland in 1720, the son of Ann Bladen and Benjamin Tasker, Sr., the Provincial Governor of Maryland from 1752 to 1753.

Career

Benjamin Tasker, Jr. was appointed by Provincial Governor of Maryland, Horatio Sharpe as Commissioner, to secure the assistance of The Six Nations, having been voted £500 by the Maryland General Assembly for this purpose. This commission resulted in the Confederacy of 1752, a union of colonial interests for defense about a quarter of a century before the United States Declaration of Independence.

He was one of Maryland’s delegates to the Albany Congress of 1754, another attempt on the part of the colonists to deal jointly with a common problem. He served on a committee at the Albany congress with Benjamin Franklin which was charged with the task of drawing up a plan for a central government of all the colonies. Ath the adjournment of the congress, the plan adopted was submitted to the various legislatures for approval. While it was rejected, its goals were pursued later at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

In 1752 he helped to organize a lottery to pay for a town clock in Annapolis.

He served as Mayor of Annapolis from 1754 to 1755.

Horse racing

An owner of thoroughbred horses, Tasker is noted in horse racing circles for having imported from England the mare "Selima" between 1750 and 1752. Sired by Godolphin Arabian, "Selima" was raced until the end of the 1752 season then was sent to Samuel Ogle's Belair Stud in Collington, Maryland. As a broodmare, "Selima" produced ten foals that would became an important bloodline in American racing with important racing offspring such as "Hanover" and is even the ancestress of George Washington's stallion, "Magnolia."

Tasker and Franklin became friends, and when Franklin visited Annapolis in the spring of 1755, he visited Tasker at the Belair Mansion, then being run by Tasker.

Tasker died on October 17th 1760, around 40 years of age.

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Benjamin Tasker, Jr.'s Timeline

1717
October 22, 1717
Annapolis, Md.
1721
February 14, 1721
Annapolis, Md.
1760
October 17, 1760
Age 39
Annapolis, Md.
October 1760
Age 39
Annapolis, Md.