The 231 Tasker records on the IGI make Northamptonshire one of the top ten counties for Taskers, even if as yet the families are not very well sorted out…

The first recorded Tasker clan is based at Maxey, then a small village some 5 miles north of Peterborough. John Tasker was the earliest, born about 1523, who married Margaret on16 October 1548. The couple had a son William born about 1549 who went on to marry in Maxey, as well as daughters Alice, married in April 1594, and Katherine, married in August 1598. William and his wife then had Bartholomew, christened on 24 August 1569, Alice in 1572, Richard in 1574, John in 1578 and Catherine, about 1580.

Somewhere about 1530 to 1540 Robert Tasker was born – maybe a brother of John 'of Maxey' – who went on to marry Alice Foster in Peterborough on 6 November 1561. There are no immediate children recorded, but Robert Tasker (the same one?) married Elizabeth Pereson on 21 October 1589 and they more than made up for it. They had Robert in 1590 and again in 1597, Ann in 1592, Susan in 1593 and again in 1603, John in 1600 and 1611, William who was christened on 4 November 1606 and died 3 days later, and Elizabeth christened in 1608 who died in 1611. So there seems to have been a huge child mortality amongst the family, with at least five of their nine children dying before they were ten.

Also in Peterborough, Richard Tasker was having children, although his marriage is not recorded. Susan was christened in 1588, Thomas in 1589, Elizabeth in 1592, an un-named child on 10 Sep 1598, Edith in 1600, Suzanne in 1603, James in 1606 and Richard on 25 July 1610. It seems unlikely that Richard the father was the son of William of Maxey if the dates on the IGI are correct, but there must be a connection somewhere!

Either Robert or Richard also had a child Francis in Peterborough, who was christened on 12 February 1596 and died a day later.

The final pre-1600 record is of William Tasker 'of Castor' born about 1586(?) who married in Castor in 1608. As Castor is only a few miles west of Peterborough, he must fit in with this clan somehow – maybe an unrecorded son of Richard?