Born in Saint-Geniez-d'Olt (Aveyron), Chabot became a Capuchin friar in Rodez before the French Revolution, while continuing to be attracted to the works of philosophes - the reason for which he was banned from preaching in the respective diocese.

[1] Re-elected to the National Convention for the département of Loir-et-Cher, he voted for the execution of King Louis XVI, and opposed the proposal to prosecute the authors of the September Massacres, as there were heroes of the Battle of Jemappes among them.

[2] In November 1793, François Chabot was denounced by several members of the Convention, notably Fabre d'Eglantine, Jacques-René Hébert and Louis Pierre Dufourny de Villiers, on the grounds that he had attempted to falsify the finances of the French East India Company, offering bribes to various elected representatives in the process.

To quote Dufourney's testimony: When Antoinette was on trial before the revolutionary tribunal, when the nation was at its maximum of execration for foreigners, when our brothers who were [fighting] on the frontiers left us widows to console, sisters and family to succor, it was then that Chabot made a marriage of interests with an Autrichienne!

[4] In Dufourny's version of the East India scandal, Chabot and his close associates were working with the Baron de Batz, who had previously been accused of offering a bounty for the rescue of Marie Antoinette, on behalf of members of the Austrian royalty.