Thomas de Veil

Sir Thomas de Veil (21 November 1684 – 7 October 1746), also known as deVeil, was Bow Street's first magistrate. He was known for having enforced the Gin Act 1736, and, with Sir John Gonson, Henry Fielding, and John Fielding, was responsible for creating the first professional police and justice system in England.

Thomas de Veil was born in St Paul's Churchyard, London, in 1684. The identity of his parents needs to be clarified: while a contemporary biographer had pinpointed Revd. Dr. Hans de Veil as his father, the parish of St Augustine, London, records the birth of a Thomas de Veil to Lewis de Compiègne de Veil and his wife, Anne, on 21 November 1684. While the name of his father remains unsettled, it is known he was a Frenchman originally from the Lorraine, and that he was a Huguenot.

De Veil is said to have left home when he was 15 years old to learn the trade of mercer in a shop on Queen street, near Cheapside. When his master's business failed after several months, De Weil enlisted as a private in the War of the Spanish Succession. He fought at Cadiz and Vigo in 1702 and at Almanza in 1707, and caught the attention of Colonel Martin Bladen, with whom he remained friends for the rest of his life, and the Earl of Galway, who would then bestow upon him a troop of dragoons.

By the time the war ended in 1713, Thomas de Veil had attained the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Red Regiment of Westminster. Returning to England, he borrowed a great deal of money to restore his fortunes, which in turn led to a considerable debt. He retired to the countryside and lived upon the half pay provided by the army until he had dispensed of his debts, upon which he returned to London in search of a second source of income, and became a political lobbyist with an office in Whitehall: his work at this time consisted of "soliciting at the war-office, the treasury, and other public boards, drawing petitions, cases, and representations, memorials, and such kind of papers, for which he kept an office in Scotland-yard". Thanks to his diligence, and the interest of many former acquaintances like Martin Bladen, he was made a justice of the peace and was appointed to the commissions of the peace of Middlesex and Westminster in 1729.

Soon after being appointed to the commissions of the peace he opened his first office in Leicester Fields, conducting criminal hearings there. He would move to Thrift Street, Soho, sometime in either 1737 or 1738, and finally to Bow Street in 1740. He would be the first magistrate to set up court there, effectively creating the Bow Street Magistrates' Court.

From 1729, when he was first appointed Court Justice, until his death, he was the most active magistrate in London, and would provide the public access to his services on a regular basis. He broke up many criminal gangs, the most famous (and the one from which he gained the most recognition) being that led by William Wreathock, a Hatton Garden attorney, in 1735. He was “more willing than most” to implement the ill-fated 1736 Gin Act, and in this period had to implement the Riot Act several times. He personally investigated serious crimes, solving some of the most notorious cases of his era, though his work was primarily magisterial. He was noted to be rigorous in interviewing suspects and in arranging follow-up enquiries, prosecuting frauds, and suppressing attacks on informers. In September 1744, after the City's deputy marshal, Mr Jones, requested assistance from Middlesex peace officers, he attempted to promote co-operation between the fragmented police forces in the capital.

As a reward for his magisterial work, and to allow him to focus on it, in 1738 he was granted a sinecure as Inspector of Imports and Exports, a job with minimal duties and a salary of £600 per year, and received an additional grant of £100 in 1740. In further recognition of his work he was knighted in 1744, and was given the rank of colonel of militia to facilitate his responsibilities with internal security in wartime.

His success and professionalism in his work, however, made him the subject of several assassination plots. In one attempt in 1731, de Veil was stabbed in the stomach by Mr John Webster, an Irish "trading justice" who had been angered by de Veil's correction of one of his cases. Another failed attempt in 1735 led Julian Brown, a member of the Wreathock gang who was tasked with killing de Veil, to become a key witness against his former master instead.