Johan op den Dyck

Notes:

From The op Dyck Genealogy, citation details below:

Johan appears in the records as Schepen, Treasurer, and Town Councillor, as Burgomaster eleven times, and as receiving the usual salaries and Christmas gifts incident to these offices. For two years he was custodian of one of the four keys of the city chests, and he was repeatedly chosen with others by the Council to represent the city at the court of its feudal lord, the Duke of Cleves, and also in foreign towns. The mission on which he served in 1449 was to Deventer in Holland, to procure the release of Wesel citizens wrongfully iniprisoned there, while that of 1431 had for its object the remission by the Duke of Cleves of an excessive tax that he had levied upon the town. Besides paying various taxes and imposts, the townsmen were occasionally invited to meet the pressing needs of their feudal lord by lending him money. One of these loans was of 400 gulden, of which amount Johan alone contributed one-twentieth part.

The records contain numerous mentions of Johan as holding land at and near Wesel. It is this continued tendency towards land-ownership, quite as much as their hereditary office-holding, that distinguishes the Wesel op den Dycks and others of the Altbuerger class, and suggests for them an origin in the equestrian rank. While we have no reason to suppose that they were more honest or able, or better educated than many other citizens of the place, we are forced to conclude that they enjoyed a dignity and consideration to which their less fortunate neighbors hardly aspired. As an instance of this We find such expressions as "Sir" and "Honorable" attached to Johan's name in the records. Whatever ground he and his line may have had for family pride, we must still think of them as chiefly engaged in manufactures or commerce. One of the most important industries of Wesel was its woolen trade, and we find Johan appearing as a member of the City Woolen Guild. [...]

Even at this early period the citizens of Wesel deserved great praise for their numerous charities, not only hospitals for immediate relief, but institutions for the future support of the needy and their successors. To these purposes the merchants devoted a considerable part of the wealth acquired by them through fortunate trade, and the still existing benevolent foundations are so many monuments of their virtue and wisdom. Among these was the Orphan Asylum, built by the town before 1450. It was controlled by two managers, one selected by the magistrates, and one elected by the people. The orphans were dressed in ashen gray cloth, with a stripe on the shoulder; they must not beg; they were taught reading, writing and a trade, and were maintained until the age of sixteen years or later. They knelt morning and evening to say the Lord's Prayer and the articles of faith, and ate their breakfast at eight o'clock, none being allowed to rise before grace. Those that worked outside carried their dinners, but all returned to an afternoon meal at four o'clock, and again had a six o'clock supper of bread and butter and beer. There were also many smaller institutions, which were usually supported by rent-charges placed by the founders upon their estates, and which often bore their name. One of these was the Offerman Charity, of which the original deed of foundation, 1443, recites that :

"Before _____ and _____, Schepens of Wesel, came Deric Offerman and his lawful wife Ludegard, who, in the honor of God, His Mother Mary, and all the Saints, and for the comfort of their own souls and of those of their children, relatives, and friends, have given their house and land for the use of eight or nine persons forever, said persons to be chosen by the founder and his Wife and their heirs. Each person so chosen shall be received in the house, have his chair, his place by the fire, his food, his candle, etc.; shall wash the spoons in his Week, shall carry fire-wood, and prepare what is to be cooked, etc., but shall carry away no beds, Wood, or coals, etc. All shall live quietly and peacefully together, and pray for the souls of Deric, his wife, children, relatives, and friends. What each brings shall remain at his death in the house for the common good of the poor. If any is discontented and troublesome so that the others can not live with him, and does not mend his Ways after two or three Warnings by Deric, his wife, or his heirs, then shall such a one be expelled with all the goods that he has brought."

Another endowment was of seven small houses for seven widows; another for two poor women; and another for poor maidens of good character. Johan and his wife twice gave property to similar godly and charitable purposes, and are mentioned as members of a religious association at a neighboring town.

Family/Spouse: Judith. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Johan op den Dyck was born about 1420; died in 1504.

Notes:

From The op Dyck Genealogy, citation details below:

Deric was Schepen and Burgomaster, but does not appear as Treasurer, that office having been held by his brother Wilhelm. Although Wilhelm died before Deric, and is mentioned before him in the deed of 1383 by which they and their sisters conveyed property to a charity, the fact that Wilhelm did not act as Schepen makes it probable that he was younger than Deric. Deric's service as Schepen, extending as it does over the whole period of his mature activity, together with the known hereditary character of the of?ce, leads us to believe that he became Schepen immediately upon the death of his father, and held the post continuously throughout his life.

About this time there arose at Wesel a cheerful custom, which we shall ?nd to have been continued down to the Reformation, and by which the city gave yearly Christmas gifts of wine to its municipal officers. The gift amounted to from two to four quarters in the case of the Schepens, Town Councillors and Treasurers, and to eight quarters in the case of the Burgomasters, and was additional to their salaries. The records given below show that in each of the two years in which Deric was Burgomaster he was paid a salary of 36 marks, and further that he received the official Christmas gifts of wine.

Apart from his magistracy and his attestation of deeds we derive most of our knowledge of Deric from the "Kaemmerei-Rechnungen" or City Account Books, a series of original detailed records of the yearly income and expenditure of Wesel, beginning with 1342, and extending continuously with the exception of a few years for which the books have been lost, destroyed or injured; and from a series of similar records of Willibrord's Church, beginning in 1401. The entries are far from explicit; for instance, we find that in 1410 Deric made a payment to the church on account of a house, but are left in doubt whether it was a payment of rent in our sense of the word, or in the nature of a rent-charge placed by Deric upon his house to secure a debt or a fixed annual contribution. Besides exercising their respective functions of government, of religious administration, and of charity, the municipality, the Church, and the various foundations of the city, acted also as monied institutions, owned and rented land, loaned money, and held rent-charges on the property of their debtors. Yearly receipts by such institutions for the use of their land, or in payment of rent-charges, were entered in the account books under the common heading "Renten." Where the receipt is isolated as was the one from Deric in 1410, we infer that it was of rent proper; but where it is continued for several generations of the same family, always on the same land, we conclude that the property was an hereditary possession, and that the payment was of a rent-charge placed upon it.

Deric married Emma before 1383. Emma died before 1 Dec 1419. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From The op Dyck Genealogy, citation details below:

Henric appears chiefly as an officeholder at Wesel, that is as Burgomaster, as City Treasurer, and as Schepen. Of a Schepen's duties as judge and alderman, we know little more than that he tried both civil and criminal cases at law, joined his brother Schepens in passing ordinances for the government of the town, and saw to it that these ordinances were observed. The records of this part of his work have been for the most part destroyed, and he has usually been preserved from oblivion as an attestor of sealed instruments, of which those that come down to us form probably but a fraction of the whole number to which he affixed his seal, and owe their escape from destruction to the accident of having related to the property of some religious corporation, whose quiet cloisters have proved a safe depository. In early times at Wesel, a man rarely executed an instrument by signing or sealing it personally, and where he did so it may be taken as a mark of his rank and importance. He customarily went before two Schepens, and the document, probably drawn by one of them, began with their recital, "We, and -----, Schepens of Wesel, do by this open instrument witness and attest that ----- came before us and declared that he did etc.," and ended "in witness whereof we have attached our seals to this instrument. Dated etc." The lower edge of the parchment was folded over and cut with two short horizontal slits, through each of which was passed a narrow slip of parchment. The loose ends of each slip were fastened together with a lump of wax, which then received the imprint of the schepen's seal. This seal was not official in the sense of being peculiar to the office of schepen, but was the individual seal of the man that held the post. It bore his name and the arms of his family; it was used by him in his private, and also in any public capacity that he might have, and was used by no one else ; it was as personal to him as his signature (for which indeed it stood), and identifies him as definitely as his portrait would now. As will be seen in the records, we have many documents attested between 1329 and 1355 by Henric op den Dyck as Schepen of Wesel, and sealed by him with a seal bearing his name and arms, and we therefore know positively that Henric lived in Wesel during those years. Schepens and schepens only were eligible to the burgomastership at this time, accordingly Henric's service as Burgomaster in 1323 shows us that he must have held the post of schepen at least as early as that year.

Henric married (Unknown wife of Henric op den Dyck). (Unknown died before 1383. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]