Middlesex records on the IGI are all lumped into 'Greater London', as are some Sussex records, making the whole picture slightly confusing. This page is therefore a summary of all London Taskers before 1600, from the 834 IGI records for Greater London. London at this time was a very different place from today!



The earliest records are for Roger (or possibly Robert) Tasker, either born about 1526, or marrying Jane Pope in 1526. The next - and more definite - Tasker was Thomas Tasker's son Thomas, christened on 1 Nov 1559, followed by daughter Alice in 1561 at St Andrew Hubbard with St Mary at Hill. This church, at Lovat Lane, London EC3, was to be rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after being destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666.

Just a few streets away, St Mary Woolnoth church stands at the corner of Lombard Street and King William Street, originally established on the site of a Roman temple to Concord by a Saxon noble called Woolnoth. There Roger Tasker's children were christened: Blanche(1574), Thomas (1577), Blanche again (1578), Abraham & Margaret (1579), Cislye (1582) and Elizabeth (1584). At the same church Margaret Tasker married Richard Williams on 23 Feb 1578, and Johan Tasker married Thurston Croxton on 12 May 1586.

Half a mile to the west, the church of St Gregory by St Paul stood at the corner of St Paul's cathedral. First mentioned 1010, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt. However Taskers were there before it went! Jarrerd (probably Garret) Tasker married Frauncis Turnough there on 3 February 1583, with son Anthony christened and buried on the same day in April 1589. William Tasker's daughter Susan was christened on 20 Aug 1585 and died a day later. Then a year later Alice Tasker married Lewis West on 29 Aug 1586.

About a mile to the north, at St James, Clerkenwell, Margaret Tasker married Fauncis Barssington 30 Jul 1587, and William Tasker's daughter Elizabeth was christened on 26 May 1588.

South of the Thames at Bermondsey, another Elizabeth Tasker (born about 1587) married Charles Brandon with a licence on 11 Feb 1608. Richard Tasker's children were christened at St Mary Magdalene church: Alice (1590), Jane (1591), William (1593), Mary (1595) and Bridget(1598). It could be this Alice Tasker who married John Hayes, also at St Mary Magdalene, on 11 Jan 1606.

Four other Taskers complete the pre-1600 IGI list: James Tasker, who married Elizabeth Glover in 1582 at St Olave's, Hart St; Cicilie Tasker who married Thomas Tomplinson in 1596 at St Bride's, Fleet St; Parret (=Garret) Tasker's son 'Frannc.', christened on 27 Oct 1586 at St Lawrence's, Pountney; and William Tasker who married Jane Michell on 5 Aug 1587, somewhere in London.