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- 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.
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Nielsen Hayden genealogy
Abt 1297 - 1383 (~ 71 years)