John Tasker (sea captain)

Seeking his fortune as a free mariner, Tasker was a passenger on the maiden voyage of the East Indiaman Anson and arrived at Bombay on 30 September 1764.[1] He quickly found employment on so-called Country Ships trading along the coast of India and into China, and by 1774 was captain of the Louisa, owned by Governor William Hornby. In 1775 he was paid 10,000 Bombay rupees for carrying East India Company troops from Madras (now Chennai) to Bombay,[2] and in December that year he was accompanied by the traveller Abraham Parsons on the Louisa's passage southward along the Malabar Coast. Parsons, whose account of the voyage was later published, left Tasker at Honnavar where he took on a cargo of pepper.[3]

In the early 1780s he commanded the Shaw Birangore and the Hornby (also owned by the Governor)[4] and, while captain of the latter, captured a vessel sailing under Spanish colours near Macao with a cargo of birds' nests. The captive ship was ransomed for two thousand dollars but, as the Hornby had no letters of marque, Tasker was unable to claim her as a prize and surrendered her to the frigate HMS Seahorse whose captain claimed her on behalf of the King.[5]

He was in business on his own account when, in the early 1780s, he obtained government contracts to carry saltpetre, brimstone and rice from the Malabar Coast to Bombay, provided a packet service for the Bengal Presidency, and imported Madeira wine.[6] In 1785 he was living at Calcutta (now Kolkata), where his house adjoined the landing stage known as Ross's Ghat, and was accepting freight on board the Nancy grab bound for Bombay and Surat.[7]

The grab was probably on charter to Tasker[note 1] but, in partnership with Pestonjee Bomanjee, he had commissioned the building of a 625-ton teak-hulled vessel by the Wadia family of shipwrights at Bombay. Bomanjee was then "the most distinguished and wealthiest of the Parsis" in Bengal and was a brother of the master-shipbuilder Jamsetjee Bomanjee.[8] Their vessel was delivered in 1786 and named the Milford after Tasker's original home waters of Milford Haven. She was in almost constant employment in trade with China and Europe for the next 24 years and received her first thorough inspection in 1810 when "it was not found necessary to shift a timber".[9][note 2]

In 1787 Tasker gave "a sumptuous entertainment to a number of English gentlemen" on board the Milford at Canton. Among the guests was the Hawaiian prince Kaʻiana, also known as Tyaana, at whose request Tasker ordered all broken victuals to be brought on deck so that Ka'iana could feed the Chinese who had gathered alongside the vessel.[10] In October of the following year Arthur Bowes Smyth, surgeon in the First Fleet returning home via China, recorded that Tasker and the Milford were then at Whampoa (now Pazhou).[11] Tasker may have disposed of his interest in the vessel shortly afterwards.

In 1789, believing that he had accumulated sufficient funds for comfortable retirement, Tasker returned to his native Pembrokeshire[note 3] and in December purchased the Upton Castle estate for £7,000.[12] He took the waters at Bath in June 1790[13] but, though able to lend Lord Cawdor £10,000 on mortgage in January 1791,[14] he returned to India later in the year seeking to augment his fortune.[15] He left Upton Castle in the hands of his brother-in-law, Rev. John Rees, whom he had presented to the rectory of Nash-cum-Upton (the advowson of which had passed to him with Upton), and engaged Abraham Leach as steward.[16][note 4]

Around the time when Tasker left Upton Castle, Elizabeth Bishop, sister of Mary Wollstonecraft, came to reside there as governess to some of Tasker's grand-nieces, and she continued there in an unhappy frame of mind for more than three years.[17] The Wollstonecrafts' stepmother was a sister of Rev. Thomas Woods, whom Tasker later appointed to succeed Rees as Rector of Nash.[18]

On returning to India, Tasker entered the service of the East India Company as Master Attendant at Bombay.[19] It was at Bombay that the Company stationed its navy: there its vessels were built and repaired, its crews were paid, and its dockyard maintained.[note 5] Its Master Attendant was sometimes called Harbourmaster or Captain of the Port[note 6] and was deputy to the Marine Superintendent; he controlled the movement and mooring of vessels at the port, facilitated the works undertaken there, collected the dues accruing to the company, and kept good order about the company's premises. His annual salary was £3,000[20] and he was permitted to engage in commerce for private reward.[note 7]

His appointment as Master Attendant may have owed something to the influence of Governor William Hornby and of John Hunter who was for twenty years a Director of the East India Company. Perhaps reflecting this obligation, at his death Tasker left £100 to each of them to buy a ring.[21] When Tasker took up the Bombay appointment Hunter had counselled him against allowing ambition for "wanton lavishment of his property" to prolong his stay in India[22] and, while there, Tasker managed Hunter's Indian investments and shipped locally sourced supplies to him in England.[23][note 8]

In 1793 Tasker and one of the Bomanjee brothers[note 9] commissioned the building of another ship, the 627-ton and 14-gun vessel which they named Upton Castle after Tasker's estate in Wales. The ship was launched on 21 August 1793 when those attending the event and the following "elegant dinner" included Tasker's "good friend" Lachlan Macquarie, then stationed at Bombay with his regiment.[24]

A few days later Tasker was one of the small party present at Macquarie's marriage and, with the bride's father, he was a trustee of the marriage settlement. Macquarie recorded that he and his new wife afterwards had the use of Tasker's carriage "whenever we want it" and in 1794 they lived at Admiralty House, Tasker's town residence, while he remained at his house in the country.[25][note 10]

Marine support from Bombay was important for land-based forces during the Third Anglo-Mysore War and for attacks on Dutch settlements in India, but the port itself was not under threat during Tasker's period as Master. It was presumably on account of the protection provided to commercial transport that, when Tasker announced his retirement from office in July 1795, the merchants of Bombay combined to give him their particular thanks for "the prompt assistance afforded the shipping of this port when in a situation of the greatest danger" and for his "exertions and professional abilities so eminently displayed".[26]

Tasker's retirement from his post as Master Attendant was consistent with his earlier intentions. He had considered it "too late in life to enter into extensive mercantile connections", and in February 1792 had written to his steward Leach "If I am alive you will see me in three years and to spend the remainder of my days at Upton". He retained financial interests in India after his departure home, and in 1799 Hormusjee Bomanjee reported having invested in shark-fins and sandalwood on his behalf.[27]

John Tasker’s monument in the chapel at Upton Castle.

In addition to the manor of Upton, Tasker's estate included lands in the adjacent parishes of Carew and Cosheston, and upon his return he embarked on a programme of land drainage and improvement. He undertook restorative work on Upton Chapel, which had been in ruins when he bought the estate,[28] and planned to build a new mansion house[29] though no progress was made in this respect. The list of those to whom he bequeathed "handsome gold mourning rings" in his will indicates his social circle comprised many of the principal landed families of South West Wales[note 11] and in 1798 he served as High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire.[30]

He remained unmarried and, dying at Upton on 12 December 1800, aged 58, was buried in the chapel there with what his executor directed should be proper "pomp".[31] By his will and its codicils, all dated three days before his death, he appointed annuities for various relatives and his "black servant Antonio", gave legacies exceeding £14,500 in aggregate, and left his Upton Castle and Carew properties to his grand-niece Maria Jones who had married Rev. Thomas Woods, the Rector of Nash.[32] Maria's descendants continued to own and live at Upton until 1927.[33]

Shortly before his return to Wales in 1795, Tasker had sent to his relatives at Upton a dark-skinned boy from Bombay named John William Tasker who, he wrote, "calls me father".[34] In his will he referred to the youth as his "friend John William Tasker" and left him £1,500, and as late as 1803 Tasker's executors contributed to the cost of his support and education.[35]

After six years as an assistant in the office of Forbes & Company, John William Tasker opened his own marine agency at Bombay in 1812.[36] In April 1817 he took delivery of a ship (596 tons) built for him by John Crookenden at Cochin (now Kochi) and named it Upton Castle, the previous vessel of that name having been destroyed by fire at Saugor in February.[37] In 1818 he was recorded as owner of the ships Dandaloy, Jane, Pembroke and Zephyr, as well as the Upton Castle — five of the thirty-seven Merchant Ships then belonging to or sailing out of Bombay.[38] In the same year he took into partnership John Furlong, one of John Tasker's grand-nephews,[39][note 12] but in 1819 their firm of Tasker & Co. was bankrupt and the Upton Castle was seized and sold by the Sheriff of Bombay.[40]