imported>Smasongarrison: Copying from Category:Planters from colonial Maryland to Category:Slave owners from Maryland Diffusing per WP:DIFFUSE and/or WP:ALLINCLUDED using Cat-a-lot

2025-11-23T03:55:09Z

Copying from Category:Planters from colonial Maryland to Category:Slave owners from Maryland Diffusing per WP:DIFFUSE and/or WP:ALLINCLUDED using Cat-a-lot

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{{Short description|American slave trader, politician (1720–1760)}}
{{Infobox Politician
| name = Benjamin Tasker Jr.
| image = Benjamin Tasker Jr. - John Wollaston.jpg
| caption = portrait by [[John Wollaston (painter)|John Wollaston]]
| office = Mayor of Annapolis
| term_start = 1754
| term_end = 1755
| predecessor = [[Michael MacNamara]]
| successor = [[John Brice Jr.]]
| constituency =
| majority =
| birth_date = February 14, 1720
| birth_place = [[Maryland]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1760|10|17|1720|2|14}}
| death_place = [[Maryland]]
| relations = [[Benjamin Tasker Sr.]] (father)
| spouse =
| alma_mater =
| children =
| residence = [[Belair Mansion (Bowie, Maryland)]]
| occupation = [[Plantations in the American South|planter]], [[politician]]
| website =
}}

'''Colonel Benjamin Tasker Jr.''' (February 14, 1720–21 – October 17, 1760) was a politician and slave trader in colonial Maryland, and [[Mayor of Annapolis]] from 1754 to 1755. He was the son of [[Benjamin Tasker Sr.]], [[Governor of Maryland|Provincial Governor]] of [[Maryland]] from 1752 to 1753.

==Early life==
Benjamin Tasker Jr. was born in Maryland in 1720, the son of Ann Bladen and [[Benjamin Tasker Sr.]], the [[Governor of Maryland|Provincial Governor]] of [[Maryland]] from 1752 to 1753.

==Career==

From September 1742 to December 1755, Benjamin Tasker Jr. was Naval Officer for the port of Annapolis (a position previously held by his father). Tasker was Surveyor General of the Eastern Shore from October 1747 to 1755.<ref>''Archives of Maryland'', Biographical Series, MSA SC 3520-1228.</ref>

Benjamin Tasker Jr. was appointed by [[Governor of Maryland|Provincial Governor]] of [[Province of Maryland|Maryland]], [[Horatio Sharpe]] as Commissioner, to secure the assistance of [[Iroquois|The Six Nations]], having been voted £500 by the [[Maryland General Assembly]] for this purpose.<ref>Andrews, p.247</ref> 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]].<ref name=warf>{{Citation
| last =Warfield
| first =Joshua Dorsey
| title =The Founders of Anne Arundel And Howard Counties, Maryland
| publisher =Kohn & Pollock
|date=July 1905
| location =Baltimore, Maryland
| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=vgINAAAAYAAJ
| isbn = 0-8063-7971-5
| page =212}}
</ref>

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 [[Philadelphia Convention|Constitutional Convention]] in Philadelphia.<ref name=NHRPnom>{{Citation
|last1=Fiehler
|first1=Leonard E
|last2=Baltz
|first2=Shirley
|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form: Belair Mansion
|publisher=United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service
|year=1976
|url=http://www.mdihp.net/cfm/dsp_display.cfm?previous_image=1
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081022201245/http://www.mdihp.net/cfm/dsp_display.cfm?previous_image=1
|archive-date=2008-10-22
}}</ref>

In 1752 he helped to organize a lottery to pay for a town clock in Annapolis.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=eUB5oCNIgJEC&dq=benjamin+tasker&pg=PA212 Warfield, J. D., p.212] Retrieved August 2012</ref>

He was dispatched to settle [[Cresap's War]] between Maryland and Pennsylvania.<ref>{{cite book|title=Collections of the Virginia Historical Society, Volume 3: Dinwiddie Papers|year=1883|publisher=[[Virginia Historical Society]]|pages=13|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xNINAQAAMAAJ&q=Benjamin%20Tasker%2C%20Jr.%20married&pg=PA13}}</ref>

Tasker partnered with his brother-in-law, [[Christopher Lowndes]] on the slaving voyage of the ''Elijah''.<ref name="Maryland_Gazette_1752">{{cite news |work=The Maryland Gazette |title=Just imported |quote=In the Elijah, Captain James Lowe, directly from the coast of Africa, a parcel of healthy slaves, consisting of men, women and children, and will be disposed of on board the said vessel in Severn River on Thursday the 4th day of JUne for sterling money, bills of exchange, gold or paper currency. signed, Benjamin Tasker, Junior and Christopher Lowndes |date=May 28, 1752 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Johnston|first=James H.|title=From Slave Ship to Harvard: Yarrow Mamout and the History of an African American Family|year=2012|publisher=[[Fordham University Press]]|isbn=978-0823239504|pages=201|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TqEgt9jIeIYC&q=Benjamin%20Tasker%2C%20Jr.%20married&pg=PA202}}</ref>

==Horse racing==
An owner of [[thoroughbred]] [[horse]]s, Tasker is noted in horse racing circles for having imported from [[England]] the mare "[[Selima (horse)|Selima]]" between 1750 and 1752.<ref name=Deubler>{{Citation
| last = Deubler
| first = Cindy
| title = Belair Museums stand in path of "Progress"
| journal = Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred
| pages = 22–27
| date = May 2002
}}</ref><ref name=remly>{{Citation
| last = Remly
| first = Lynn L.
| title = Art Among the Oats: Belair Stable Museum
| journal = Equine Images
| volume = 2000
| issue = 81
| pages = 5–56
| date = Fall 2002
}}</ref> 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 become an important bloodline in American racing with important racing offspring such as "Hanover" and is even the ancestress of [[George Washington|George Washington's]] stallion, "Magnolia."<ref name=Deubler/>

Tasker and Franklin became friends, and when Franklin visited [[Annapolis, Maryland|Annapolis]] in the spring of 1755, he visited Tasker at the [[Belair Mansion (Bowie, Maryland)|Belair Mansion]], then being run by Tasker. Tasker died on October 17, 1760, around 40 years of age.<ref name=NHRPnom/>

==See also==
*[[Belair Mansion (Bowie, Maryland)]]

==References==
*Andrews, Matthew Page, ''History of Maryland'', Doubleday Doran & Co, New York City (1929).
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=eUB5oCNIgJEC&dq=benjamin+tasker&pg=PA212 Warfield, J. D. ''The Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland: A Genealogical and Biographical Review from Wills, Deeds and Church Records''] Retrieved August 2012

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

{{s-start}}
{{succession box | before = [[Michael MacNamara]] | title = [[Mayor of Annapolis]] | years = 1754–1755 | after=[[John Brice Jr.]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tasker, Benjamin Jr.}}
[[Category:1721 births]]
[[Category:1760 deaths]]
[[Category:American racehorse owners and breeders]]
[[Category:Mayors of Annapolis, Maryland]]
[[Category:18th-century American planters]]
[[Category:18th-century American slave traders]]
[[Category:Tasker family|Benjamin Jr.]]
[[Category:18th-century mayors of places in Maryland]]
[[Category:Planters from colonial Maryland]]
[[Category:Slave owners from Maryland]]
[[Category:Merchants from colonial Maryland]]
[[Category:Mayors of places in the Thirteen Colonies]]

Benjamin Tasker Jr. - Revision history

imported>Smasongarrison: Copying from Category:Planters from colonial Maryland to Category:Slave owners from Maryland Diffusing per WP:DIFFUSE and/or WP:ALLINCLUDED using Cat-a-lot