Author: Tasker, William
Biography:
TASKER, William (1740-1800: ODNB)
He was baptised on 12 Mar. 1740, the eldest of three children of Rev. William Tasker (1708-72), Rector of Iddesleigh, Devon, and his wife Jane Vickry (1714-95), who had married at Coldridge, Devon, in 1738. He was educated at Barnstaple and proceeded to Exeter College, Oxford (Matric 1758, BA 1762). In 1764 he became curate of Monk Okehampton, Devon, and then took over his father’s rectorship at Iddesleigh in 1772 which was under the patronage of his mother. A family dispute with a brother-in-law resulted in the sequestration of the income until 1790 and even afterwards he lived in some poverty and was forced to apply to the RLF for assistance. He was awarded a total of 40 guineas. In Dec. 1798 he complained of ill health and that he was “confined in my dreary situation at Starvation Hall, 40 miles below Exeter” (Nichols, 208). He married Eleanora Matthews but it is not known where or when. (Her brother John Matthews, an attorney, of Newnham, Gloucestershire, is mentioned in his will.) There was no issue. John Nichols gave two accounts of his life: GM (1800) and Literary Anecdotes (1815). These contain a list of his published works and some of his more important contributions to GM including his twenty-six “Letters on Physiognomy” (from Aristotle to Lavater) of 1797-1800, which remained unfinished at his death. Nichols noted how widely respected his wife was and that she planned a subscription edition of his works with a life (GM). It never appeared, probably because of her own declining health and death in 1801. He died on 4 Feb. 1800 at Iddesleigh rectory and was buried there. He left his wife what little money he had (about £50) to purchase an annuity. She died at Exbourne on 2 Jan. 1801 and was also buried at Iddesleigh. (ODNB 10 Jun. 2022; ancestry.co.uk 10 Jun. 2022; RLF 1/3; Watkins; GM Mar. 1800, 283-4; Monthly Magazine Feb. 1801, 98; Richard C. Cole, “William Tasker Revisited,” N&Q Sept. 1999, 365-68; John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, 9: 206-9; E. L. de Montluzin, “Attributions of Authorship in the Gentleman’s Magazine 1731-1868,” online) AA
Other Names:
- W. Tasker