 He did not get much formal education, but his father, a teacher, read the works of Jacob Cats, Joost van den Vondel and other poets to his children.Jan Theodoor van Rijswijck also became a teacher, but being adventurous, he volunteered for the Belgian independence war against the Netherlands in 1830.But the military life did not bode him well, and he obtained permission to leave the army and returned to Antwerp, where he found work as a clerk at a bank.