Benjamin Walker was born in 1753 in London, England, and died in 1818 in Utica, New York. At a young age, he entered a merchant house which brought him to the United States. Walker settled in New York City and resided with a merchant. On August 30, 1784, he married a Quaker woman named Mary Robinson, and they had one daughter named Eliza (1789-1850), whom they raised along with Mary’s niece. Before this, Walker joined the Revolutionary War and was appointed Captain of the Second New York Regiment. He then worked as the First Secretary to the Governor of New York as a broker. Walker was formally adopted by Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, a Prussian military officer, and was made his heir. According to the US Census, Walker owned two enslaved people in 1800. Walker Street in Manhattan was named in his honour.