Career
The first mention of him is in 1656 as suffering much from the magistrates in Essex, and in the same year he went as a missionary to the West Indies, where he remained about a year. After his return to England he was engaged as a travelling preacher, and is referred to by his contemporaries as having been eloquent and successful. In 1659 he was seriously ill-treated by some soldiers near Westminster Hall, and in 1660 Richard Hubberthorne, the quaker, represented to Charles II that at Thetford, Norfolk, Fell had been hauled out of a meeting, and, after being whipped, turned out of the town, and passed as a vagabond from parish to parish to Lancashire.
In a letter to Margaret Fell (Swarthmore Master in Social Service) Fell states that he was imprisoned for some time at Thetford.
He was in London during the rising of the Fifth-monarchy men in this year, and was knocked down by the soldiers as a rioter, and Fox (Journal, p 314, ed 1765) says he would have been killed but for the interposition of the Duke of New York They then went to Holland, and, being unable to obtain shipping there, proceeded to Alexandria.
The English consul banished them from the place as nuisances, and they were compelled to return to England. Nothing more is known of his life.
Fell was a man of highly devotional spirit, and full of benevolence and courage.
His few and brief writings show him to have received an education above the average. Their style is good, and the language well chosen.
