Willem Gerrit Dedel Salomonsz

That is to say that he opposed the stadtholder, William V, Prince of Orange, but was not a sympathizer of the "democratic" wing of the Patriots, like his colleague Hendrik Daniëlsz Hooft.

One of their first tasks was to decide about Amsterdam's standpoint in the matter of sending the so-called "Legion of Salm", a brigade of mercenary soldiers that was paid by the States of Holland, and was not part of the Dutch States Army, under the command of the Rhinegrave of Salm, to The Hague, as a "supplementary" garrison to the Dutch Blue Guards that already garrisoned the city, but were considered "unreliable".

The mission was opposed by the Orangists in the vroedschap of Amsterdam because it would weaken the position of their political friends in the States of Holland.

With the support of the Amsterdam delegation in the States of Holland, the motion to prohibit the mission would have carried, and the Legion would not be sent to The Hague, but now the opposite resolution passed.

The Bijltjes had not forgotten that Dedel himself in 1785 had promoted the withdrawal of the stadtholder's right to appoint members of the Admiralty boards.

Calkoen offered the stadtholder reinstatement as Captain-General of the States Army, the command of the Hague garrison (that had also been taken away from him), and the dismissal of the Patriot Amsterdam pensionary Engelbert François van Berckel and Grand Pensionary Pieter van Bleiswijk (the first to be replaced by Rendorp) if the stadtholder would help mobilize the Bijltjes.

[4] However, when the Prussian invasion of Holland and the subsequent fall of the city of Amsterdam on 10 October 1787 occurred, Dedel quietly took back his seat as burgemeester.