Representative Herman Knickerbocker

Herman Knickerbocker (also Harman, Harmen; also Knikkerbakker, Knickerbacker; July 27, 1779 – January 30, 1855) was a United States Representative from New York, a local and state officeholder, militia officer, and later a county judge. Through his friendship with author Washington Irving, his name became associated with the fictional character Diedrich Knickerbocker and, by extension, with the term “Knickerbockers” for a style of trousers and for early New Yorkers.

Knickerbocker was born in Albany, New York, on July 27, 1779. He was the son of Johannes Knickerbocker (1749–1827). His grandfather, Colonel Johannes Knickerbocker, commanded the 14th Regiment of the Albany County militia during the American Revolution and was a grandson of Harmen Jansen Knickerbocker of Friesland, the Netherlands, one of the earliest settlers of New York. This deep-rooted Dutch colonial heritage and family tradition of military and civic service shaped Knickerbocker’s identity and standing in the Albany and Rensselaer County region.

After completing preparatory studies, Knickerbocker pursued legal training in Albany. He studied law in the offices of prominent attorneys John Vernon Henry and John Bird, was admitted to the bar in 1803, and commenced practice in Albany. He subsequently moved to Schaghticoke, near Albany, where he established himself as a lawyer and landowner. In Schaghticoke he became widely known as “the Prince of Schaghticoke,” a sobriquet reflecting his noted hospitality, liberality, and social prominence in the community.

In addition to his legal practice, Knickerbocker was active in the New York militia in the early 1800s. He was initially appointed commander of a cavalry troop with the rank of captain, and in 1810 he was promoted to major in New York’s 3rd Cavalry Regiment. An 1816 newspaper article from Troy, New York, recorded that he remained active in the militia as commander of a squadron in the 3rd Regiment and led it during its annual muster and parade. Locally, he also held civil office, serving on several occasions as town supervisor of Schaghticoke, including the periods 1805 to 1806, 1813, 1818 to 1823, and 1825 to 1826, thereby playing a continuing role in town governance and administration.

As a member of the Federalist Party representing New York, Knickerbocker contributed to the legislative process during one term in the United States Congress. In 1808 he was elected as a Federalist to the Eleventh Congress and served from March 4, 1809, to March 3, 1811. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, marked by tensions leading up to the War of 1812. During his term, he was chiefly concerned with alleviating the effects of President Thomas Jefferson’s Embargo Act of 1807 on his constituents. According to an 1833 newspaper account, his maiden speech in the House of Representatives argued against the embargo and described the economic and financial condition of his district so vividly that members of the House were reportedly reduced to convulsions of laughter. Knickerbocker was not a candidate for reelection in 1810 and opposed U.S. involvement in the War of 1812.

Following his congressional service, Knickerbocker remained engaged in state and local affairs. He served in the New York State Assembly in 1816, continuing his participation in the democratic process and the representation of his region’s interests. Over time, his political allegiance shifted: in the mid-1820s he became an adherent of Andrew Jackson and joined the Democratic Party. From 1828 to 1838 he served as judge of the Rensselaer County court, presiding over local judicial matters for a decade and reinforcing his role as a leading public figure in the county.

Knickerbocker’s personal life was marked by three marriages and a large family. In 1801 he married Arietta Lansing, daughter of Abraham Lansing and Else Van Rensselaer, uniting him with two of the region’s prominent Dutch-descended families. They had five children before her death in 1814: Abraham Lansing Knickerbocker (b. 1802), Elizabeth Maria Knickerbocker (b. 1805), Catharine Knickerbocker (b. 1808), Rebecca Knickerbocker (b. 1813), and another child who died young; four of his daughters attended the Troy Female Seminary, reflecting the family’s commitment to education. In December 1814 he married Rachel Wendell, daughter of John H. Wendell, an officer in the Revolution, and Catherine Van Benthuysen. They had five children: Arietta Knickerbocker (b. 1815), Cathalina Wendell Knickerbocker (b. 1817), Maria Van Veghten Knickerbocker (b. 1819), John Knickerbocker (b. 1821), who died in childhood, and Rachel Jane Knickerbocker (b. 1822). On July 20, 1826, he married his third wife, Mary Delia Buel, who was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, and was the daughter of David Buel and Rachel McNeil. Their children included Sarah Bird Knickerbocker, who married the Reverend Samuel Haskins; Charlotte Knickerbocker; David Buel Knickerbacker (1833–1894), who retained the original spelling of the family name, graduated from Trinity College in 1853 and the General Theological Seminary in 1856, served for many years as a rector in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and in 1883 was consecrated Protestant Episcopal bishop of Indiana; and Herman Knickerbocker.

Knickerbocker’s social circle extended into the literary world, most notably through his friendship with Washington Irving. Irving borrowed his name for the fictional historian “Diedrich Knickerbocker,” a central figure in his satirical work on the history of New York. Through this literary association, Herman Knickerbocker indirectly gave rise to the broader use of “Knickerbockers” as a term for New Yorkers of Dutch descent and for a style of knee-breeches. On one occasion during Irving’s visit to Washington to meet President James Madison, Irving introduced him to the President as “my cousin Diedrich Knickerbocker, the great historian of New York,” underscoring both their friendship and the playful blending of fact and fiction that surrounded Knickerbocker’s name.

Herman Knickerbocker died in Williamsburg, New York, on January 30, 1855. He was interred in the Knickerbocker family cemetery in Schaghticoke, New York, closing a life that spanned the early national and Jacksonian eras and combined legal practice, military and civic service, congressional representation, judicial office, and a lasting, if indirect, imprint on American literary and cultural history.