Born in Lübeck, he was the younger brother of portrait painter Sir Godfrey Kneller.
Nothing certain is known about his musical education, though he may have learnt from Franz Tunder (1614–1667), organist of St. Mary's Church, Lübeck, or his own uncle Matthias Weckmann (ca.
It was there that he made the acquaintance of Johann Adam Reincken; he went on to marry his daughter Margaretha Maria in 1686.
His surviving compositions consist of a few works for organ, typical of the North German baroque toccata form: free passages alternating with fugal sections; this style was described as 'a free way of composition, not subject to any constraints' by Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680), and is thus a sort of stylus phantasticus.
He also wrote a partita with eight variations on Nun komm der Heiden Heiland (Come now, saviour of heathens) (2 var.