He earned his living as a private scholar and was a friend and comrade of Hendrik Conscience with whom he promoted the use of Dutch in Belgium.

In 1834 he wrote poems for the Flemish magazine Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen [nl] in Dutch, but with little success because of their rough language.

Serrure he founded the Maetschappy der Vlaemsche Bibliophilen, a text publication society to produce editions of medieval Flemish literature.

[1] His most famous work was the Aloude geschiedenis der Belgen of Nederduitschers (Ghent 1849), where he gave his opinion that the Low German areas are destined, despite their political divisions, to the fulfillment of a high cultural-historical idea.

In 1860 he became a member of the Royal Belgian Academy, where he took part in the work of the commission for the publication of a Flemish cultural monument.