Hampshire records on the IGI are unusual in starting with Wills. On 30 June 1576, William and Joan Tasker, together with Richard their son and Alice their daughter made their Wills. They were living at Newchurch, a small village about 4 miles south-west of Newport on the Isle of Wight, and may have got married on the same day.

Twenty years later John Tasker, his wife and son Edward all made their Wills on 15 July 1596. Apparently John also got married on the same day, at Atherfield, Shorwell. This is about 5 miles south-east of Newport, where Little Atherfield still exists near the coast.

One of the more prominent Taskers amongst the 101 on the IGI is Robert Tasker who founded Tasker's Ironworks. Although born in Wiltshire, he moved to Andover in 1806 and in 1811 married Martha Fowle where the couple remained child-less. Brother William joined him at the Ironworks, married Elizabeth Maton on 22 Apr 1829, and had children William (1830), Robert & Martha (1834) and Ann Maria (1836). The rest of the story – and photographs - of Tasker's Ironworks, Tasker's Steam Engines and Tasker's Trailers – is here.