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Samuel Riker

American politician (1743-1823)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ1508078
Source-derived summary

Samuel Riker (April 8, 1743 – May 19, 1823) was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for New York's 1st congressional district from 1804 to 1805 and again from 1807 to 1809.

Early life

He was born on April 8, 1743, in Newtown on Long Island in what was then the Province of New York into a family of Dutch origin. He was a son of Andrew Riker (1699–1762) and Jane (née Berrien) Riker (1703–1775).

His great-grandfather Abraham Ryker (1619–1689) was born in the Netherlands and settled in New Netherland.

Career

After Riker attended the common schools, he was a member of the Newtown committee of correspondence in 1774, and was supervisor of Suffolk County in 1783. He was the lieutenant of Light Horse during the American Revolution.

Samuel Riker was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1784. He was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Eighth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Smith. He served from November 5, 1804, to March 3, 1805. He was also elected to the Tenth Congress, which met from March 4, 1807, to March 3, 1809.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Samuel Riker” is american politician (1743-1823). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Samuel, Riker and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1743, 1823, 1804, 1805—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1743-04-08. For this dossier, Samuel, Riker and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american politician (1743-1823)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1508078. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1743, 1823, 1804 and 1805.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Samuel Riker”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Samuel Riker primary sources, Samuel Riker archive and Samuel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Samuel Riker”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Samuel Riker” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.