Veel became a substantial landowner in Somerset and Dorset through a highly successful legal practice and a profitable marriage. In 1389 he was leased part of the manor of Shepton Beauchamp by Cecily Turberville (sister and heir of John, 3rd Lord Beauchamp of Hatch), Robert Seymour, her son, and Sir Walter Clopton c.j.KB, for the lives of the grantors. He acquired more land in the same place in 1400, and from 1402 held a knight’s fee at nearby Stocklinch from the honour of Dunster. In 1412 his holdings in Somerset were estimated to be worth £10 15s.4d. a year, those in Broadway, Nottington, Radipole, Dorchester, Frome Whitfield and Mappowder (Dorset) worth £8, and those in Winterbourne Ford (Wiltshire), and Christchurch (Hampshire) worth £9 6s.8d.
By the time of his earliest return to Parliament for Melcombe Regis in 1393, Veel had been serving for at least three years as clerk to the j.p.s in Dorset. As we have seen, he was already well acquainted with Chief Justice Clopton, and in 1391 had joined with him in testifying in Chancery that John Beauchamp of Lillesdon had not received a commission of the peace addressed to him. In the same year Veel appeared in Clopton’s court, the King’s bench, as attorney for the burgesses of Bridport, and it seems likely that he was already occupying the post of keeper of the rolls, by the judge’s nomination. The responsibility for the King’s bench records in transit rested with the keeper, who had power to arrest and imprison those who refused to obey his orders in the course of this duty, so it was Veel who was commanded by the judges on Saturday 23 Nov. 1392 to convey the records from York to Nottingham and to have them there by the next Tuesday. But it was winter, there had been an abnormal rainfall, and the carts stuck in the mud. In urgent need of extra horses, Veel commandeered some at Norton near Welbeck, only to be confronted by the villagers who, resenting this action and armed with swords, sticks and bows, chased him and his men through the night to Warsop, shot arrows which penetrated the records in the carts, and otherwise sought to regain possession of their beasts.
Veel was kept busy in the local courts of Somerset and Dorset, acting as an attorney for the abbot of Abbotsbury and Athelney, among others, and thus made many important contacts. In May 1397 he was appointed by Roger Seymour (Cecily Turberville’s grandson) to look after his affairs while he was abroad in Ireland, and he later served as a feoffee of the family manor of Hatch Beauchamp.
Veel was referred to as ‘the elder’ in 1416, but there is no reason to date his death before 1432. From 1407 onwards he had been a regular participant at the shire elections, whether in Somerset (in 1407, 1421 (May) and 1427) or Dorset (in 1410, 1421 (Dec.), 1425, 1426, 1429 and 1431). In 1424 he had settled some lands on his daughter, and two years later he and his wife acquired more property in Dorchester. For 20 years he had an interest in the manor of Stocklinch Magdalen, which had previously belonged to his earliest patron, Sir Walter Clopton. This he now, in 1426, conveyed, along with premises in Ilchester, Sook and elsewhere in Somerset, to trustees, stipulating that for 50 years they should use half the profits to support seven poor, infirm or old men, who were to be housed in a building opposite the Preaching Friars’ house at Ilchester, retaining the remaining profits to meet the cost of amortizement of the property. (The necessary licence was to be eventually acquired in Edward IV’s reign, in accordance with his wishes.)
Veel was still living in May 1432, but probably died soon after, for he was not mentioned in the roll of a court leet held at Frome Whitfield later that year or in that compiled in 1433, by which time his daughter, Eleanor Coker, had inherited her deceased mother’s holdings there.