His secondary schooling was with the Augustinians in Bruges, after which he moved on to study successfully for a degree in Law at the (not yet split) University of Leuven on the far side of Brussels. By January 1792 he was back in Bruges. He embarked on a career in public administration, working as a municipal "Schepen" (sometimes translated as "magistrate") in the second to last city administration to be appointed before the entire region was over-run by French revolutionary "citizen armies". In 1794, as far as surviving sources disclose, he disappeared for three years. He resurfaced in 1797, still based in Bruges, as a member of the departmental council for the recently created department of Lys, in a by now greatly enlarged version of France. The departmental council quickly became indistinguishable, in terms of its membership and principal activities, from its Ancien Régime precursor. 1802 marked the start of his lengthy incumbency as chairman of the departmental council.