Mary (Howard) Tasker was born during the mid seventeenth century into an affluent family in Rudbaxton, Pembrokeshire. On July 9th 1682, her childless brother Thomas died in a duel and so Mary inherited the family estate at Flether Hill.

The shadow of uncertainty that surrounded her childhood appeared to have a lasting impact on Mary’s life. She witnessed the poverty of families around Haverfordwest who also lived in constant fear of the plague that had reached surrounding villages. Families with money too, refused to buy goods brought in from Bristol, for fear of infection.

Women in Mary’s own family were persecuted. Her great grandmother Anne belonged to the Catholic Church, and her parents were in the service of Mary Queen of Scots. For this, she was ‘harassed by the corporation of Haverfordwest…on one occasion they even had her arrested and kept in custody for some days’. In fear or protest, Anne refused to go downstairs in her own home for a year, with intervention from the King finally resolving the situation.

The instability of her early life coupled with a family line (from the Dukes of Norfolk) renowned for their benevolence, perhaps inspired Mary Tasker’s own generosity. Following the death of her husband William in 1864, she made her own will and left a sizeable proportion of her wealth to female members of her family, including £20 to her cousin Anne Sanders and £60 to her ‘kinswoman’ Elizabeth Williams. She also made concession for her mother ‘Joan Howard of Puncheston for life’.

Most significantly, Mary left a legacy to ‘build an almshouse for poor children in Haverfordwest’. This went on to become Tasker’s School. Her pledge was for the ‘…maintenance of poor children of both sexes…that a competent maintenance should be allowed them yearly until they should be put apprentices to convenient trades; and likewise some money…might be given towards the setting out of such apprenticeship’.

Mary Tasker died on January 1^st 1685, but it was twenty two years until the school was opened in Upper Market Street (now the Palace Cinema, Haverfordwest).  There were initially forty-six ‘scholars’ with boys taught ‘the three R’s’ and girls learning reading, writing and needlework. Interestingly, girls were also only allowed three years of schooling and by 1847, the school catered for boys only, having ‘phased out’ the education of girls.

By 1882, with several schools in the town, Governors decided to abolish the boys’ school and Tasker’s High School for Girls was opened on Tower Hill, Haverfordwest, with ‘a splendid schoolroom with Headmistress’s residence…three classrooms and an assembly hall’. The first pupil on the register was twelve year old Marie Louise Davies.

Ganed Mary (Howard) Tasker yn ystod canol yr ail ganrif ar bymtheg i deulu cefnog yn Rudbaxton, Sir Benfro. Ar 9 Gorffennaf 1682, bu farw ei brawd Thomas mewn gornest yn ddi-etifedd, ac felly etifeddodd Mary ystâd y teulu yn Flether Hill.

Ymddengys bod cysgod ansicrwydd oedd yn rhan o’i phlentyndod wedi cael effaith barhaol ar fywyd Mary. Gwelodd y teuluoedd o amgylch Hwlffordd yn byw mewn tlodi ac mewn ofn parhaus o’r pla oedd wedi cyrraedd pentrefi cyfagos. Roedd y teuluoedd hynny oedd ag arian hefyd yn gwrthod prynu nwyddau oedd wedi’u mewnforio o Fryste, rhag ofn eu bod wedi’u heintio.

Roedd merched yn nheulu Mary ei hun yn cael eu herlid. Roedd ei hen fam-gu Anne yn perthyn i’r Eglwys Gatholig, ac roedd ei rhieni hithau yn gwasanaethu Mary Queen of Scots. Oherwydd hyn, cafodd ei ‘haflonyddu gan gorfforaeth Hwlffordd … ar un achlysur, roedd hi hyd yn oed wedi cael ei harestio a’i chadw yn y ddalfa am rai dyddiau’. Mewn ofn neu brotest, gwrthododd Anne fynd i lawr y grisiau yn ei chartref ei hun am flwyddyn, gydag ymyrraeth gan y Brenin yn datrys y sefyllfa yn y diwedd.

Roedd ansefydlogrwydd ei bywyd cynnar ynghyd â llinach deuluol (o Ddugiaid Norfolk) oedd yn enwog am eu cymwynasgarwch, o bosibl wedi ysbrydoli haelioni Mary Tasker ei hun. Yn dilyn marwolaeth ei gŵr William ym 1864, gwnaeth ei hewyllys ei hun a gadawodd gyfran sylweddol o’i chyfoeth i ferched ei theulu, gan gynnwys £20 i’w chyfnither Anne Sanders a £60 i’w ‘pherthynas’ Elizabeth Williams. Hefyd gwnaeth gonsesiwn i’w mam ‘Joan Howard o Gas-mael am oes’.

Yn fwy arwyddocaol na dim, gadawodd Mary gymynrodd i ‘adeiladu elusendy i blant tlawd yn Hwlffordd’. Dyma yn ddiweddarach oedd Ysgol Tasker. Ei haddewid oedd ‘… cynnal plant tlawd o’r ddau ryw… a dylid caniatáu cynhaliaeth ddigonol iddynt bob blwyddyn tan eu bod yn cael cynnig prentisiaeth mewn crefft ddefnyddiol; ac yn yr un modd, gellid rhoi rhywfaint o arian… tuag at sefydlu’r cyfryw brentisiaeth’.  

Bu farw Mary Tasker ar Ionawr 1^af 1685, ond aeth dwy flynedd ar hugain heibio cyn agor yr ysgol yn Stryd y Farchnad Uchaf (lle mae Sinema’r Palace, Hwlffordd, erbyn heddiw). Ar y dechrau, roedd pedwar deg chwech o ‘ysgolheigion’ yn yr ysgol gyda’r bechgyn yn dysgu ‘y tair R’ a’r merched yn dysgu darllen, ysgrifennu a gwnïo. Yn ddiddorol, dim ond tair blynedd o addysg a ganiatawyd i ferched, ac erbyn 1847, roedd yr ysgol ond yn derbyn bechgyn, ar ôl ‘dod ag addysg i ferched i ben yn raddol’.

Erbyn 1882, gyda nifer o ysgolion yn y dref, penderfynodd y Llywodraethwyr ddiddymu ysgol y bechgyn ac agorwyd Ysgol Uwchradd Tasker i Ferched ar Tower Hill, Hwlffordd, gydag ‘ysgoldy rhagorol a llety i’r Brifathrawes… tair ystafell ddosbarth a neuadd ymgynnull’. Y disgybl cyntaf ar y gofrestr oedd Marie Louise Davies, deuddeg oed.