Philippe Veranneman de Watervliet

Philippe Veranneman de Watervliet (3 December 1787 - 9 March 1844) was a politician in the Southern Netherlands. During the period of the United Netherlands he was a member of the Second Chamber in the States General (national parliament). He was also, between 1828 and 1830, the last mayor of Bruges before 1830, when the southern part of the country broke away to form the separate state of Belgium.

Aristocratic provenance Philippe Jean Ignace Veranneman de Watervliet was born in Bruges. The "Jonkheer" Veranneman came from a leading Zeeland family, known as the "Lords of Watervliet". The earliest surviving record of the family's nobility dates from 1731, when the titled status of Philippe Veranneman de Watervliet's ancestor was confirmed "to the extent necessary" ("voor zoveel als nodig") by the emperor Charles VI. Philippe's father was Jean-Charles Veranneman: his mother, born Emérance Colette Pardo de Fremicourt, was a surviving member of a Spanish family that had been powerful in Bruges during the seventeenth century.

In 1817 he became a member of the local council for Bruges, but he resigned from that position the next year, serving as district commissioner for the nearby Torhout district between 1818 and 1820. In 1820 he was appointed a permanent delegate/member of the Provincial-Executive "(Gedeputeerde Staten"). Between 1823 and 1828 he served as district commissioner for Bruges.

The failure to re-elect him as mayor in November 1830 was simply a response to a feeling among the voters (well-heeled citizens of whom, at this stage, there were fewer than 500) that it was time for a change. Veranneman's decision to attend parliament in The Hague during the summer of 1830, when there was revolution much closer to home, reflected his belief that he could be more useful to Bruges by representing his city in the Dutch capital, especially given his confidence in the abilities of his deputy, Jean-Baptiste Coppieters 't Wallant to administer the city in his absence.