Benjamin Tasker, Jr.

Benjamin Tasker Jr.
Mayor of Annapolis
In office 1754–1755
Preceded by	Michael MacNamara
Succeeded by	John Brice Jr.
Personal details
Born	February 14th 1720/21 Maryland
Died	October 17th 1760 Maryland
Relations	Benjamin Tasker Sr. (father)
Residence	Belair Mansion (Bowie, Maryland)
Occupation	planter, politician

Colonel Benjamin Tasker Jr. (February 14, 1720/21 – 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.

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.

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.

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.

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