Benjamin Tasker, Jr.

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Colonel Benjamin Tasker, Jr. (1720 – October 17, 1760) was the son of Ann Bladen and Benjamin Tasker, Sr., the Provincial Governor of Maryland from 1752 to 1753.

Benjamin Tasker, Jr. was appointed by Provincial Governor of Maryland, Horatio Sharpe as Commissioner to secure the assistance of The Six Nations. 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.[1]

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.[2]

An owner of thoroughbred horses, Tasker is noted in horse racing circles for having imported from England the mare "Selima" etween 1750 and 1752.[3][4] 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.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Warfield, Joshua Dorsey (July 1905). The Founders of Anne Arundel And Howard Counties, Maryland. Baltimore, Maryland: Kohn & Pollock, 212. ISBN 0806379715. 
  2. ^ a b Fiehler, Leonard E & Baltz, Shirley (1976), National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form: Belair Mansion, United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, <http://www.mdihp.net/cfm/dsp_display.cfm?previous_image=1> 
  3. ^ Deubler, Cindy (2002-05), “Belair Museums stand in path of "Progress"”, Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred: 22-27 
  4. ^ Remly, Lynn L. (Fall 2002), “Art Among the Oats: Belair Stable Museum”, Equine Images 2000 (81): 5-56 
Preceded by
Michael MacNamara		 Mayor of Annapolis
1754–1755		 Succeeded by
John Brice, Jr.


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