mater, and removed (September 1769) to Homerton. It soon became apparent that Fell could not get on well with his students. His apologist speaks of a spirit of insubordination in the academy prior to his appointment. Matters went from bad to worse till at the annual examination in June 1795 charges and counter-charges were brought forward. After much deliberation the governing body, in March 1796, insisted on Fell's retirement, either at midsummer or Christmas. His friends drew up a protest, which the majority declined to record. Fell left the academy at the end of January 1797, and was succeeded by John Berry [see Berry, Charles]. Doubtless Fell had faults of temper; he offended some by a rigid orthodoxy, others he estranged by his republican sympathies.
Through the exertions of a London merchant Fell was provided with an annuity of 100l. A committee of eight laymen raised some 200l. as remuneration for a course of twelve lectures on the evidences. Fell had delivered four of these to crowded audiences in the Scots Church, London Wall, when his health gave way. He died unmarried on 6 Sept. 1797 at Homerton, and was buried at Bunhill Fields on 15 Sept., a funeral oration being delivered by Joseph Brooksbank. The funeral sermon was preached at the Old Jewry on Sunday evening, 24 Sept., by Henry Hunter, D.D. [q. v.], of the Scots Church.
Fell published: 1. ‘Confession of Faith,’ printed with the services at his ordination, 1770, 8vo. 2. ‘Essay on Love of one's Country,’ 8vo (Hunter). 3. ‘Genuine Protestantism,’ &c., 1773, 8vo (three letters to the Rev. Edward Pickard of Carter Lane, on subscription). 4. ‘The Justice … of the Penal Laws … examined,’ &c., 1774, 8vo. 5. ‘A Fourth Letter … on Genuine Protestantism,’ &c., 1775, 8vo (in reply to Joshua Toulmin, D.D.). 6. ‘Dæmoniacs. An Enquiry,’ &c., 1779, 8vo (against Farmer). 7. ‘Remarks on the Appendix of the Editor of Rowley's Poems,’ published in Hickford's ‘Observations,’ &c., 1782, 8vo. 8. ‘An Essay towards an English Grammar,’ &c., 1784, 12mo. 9. ‘The Idolatry of Greece and Rome,’ &c., 1785, 8vo (against Farmer). 10. ‘Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity,’ &c., 1798, 8vo, two editions same year; third edition, 1799, 8vo (the course was completed by Hunter). Hunter mentions also reviews of Horne Tooke's ‘Diversions of Purley’ (1786), and Nicholas Savary's ‘Letters on Egypt’ (1786), but does not say where they appeared.
[Hunter's Funeral Sermon, 1797; Memoir in Protestant Dissenter's Magazine, 1798, p. 1 sq. (see also 1797, p. 400); Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of Dissenters, 1833, ii. 518; Davids's Ann. Evang. Nonconf. in Essex, 1863, p. 496; Browne's Hist. Congr. Norfolk and Suffolk, 1877, p. 465; Calendar of Assoc. Theol. Colleges, 1887, p. 48.]
FELL, LEONARD (d. 1700), quaker, was the son of Thomas Fell, gentleman, of Beckliff, or Baycliff, Lancashire, and in his early life occupied some position of trust in the house of his relative, Thomas Fell [q. v.], at Swarthmore. He appears to have become a quaker in 1652. Between 1654 and 1657 he was repeatedly sent to prison for interrupting services, and in 1661 was imprisoned for some religious offence at Leicester. Most of his time seems to have been spent in preaching excursions, although till 1665 at least he retained his situation at Swarthmore, and in this year he was imprisoned in Lancaster Castle for being at an illegal conventicle. He had some property at Addingham, Cumberland, and in 1666 was sent to prison at the suit of the vicar of that place for refusing to pay tithes, but owing to the vicar's death he was discharged within a fortnight. He suffered a long imprisonment in 1668 for having attended a meeting at Swarthmore and then refusing the oaths, and in 1672 he was again imprisoned for refusing to pay tithes to Theo. Aimes, vicar of Baycliff, but was a second time released by the death of his suitor. For preaching at a meeting on the shore of Windermere he suffered distress to the value of 20l., and two years later was fined by the justices of Westmoreland a similar sum for the like offence. In the intervals between his imprisonments he was engaged in ministerial work, chiefly in the northern counties and in Wales, and his preaching is said to have been of an earnest and loving character rather than argumentative or doctrinal. In September 1684 he was sent to gaol for more than a month for absenting himself from the parish church, and immediately after his release was again arrested and incarcerated for about eight weeks for the same offence. He died while on a preaching excursion at Darlington in 1700, having been a minister nearly fifty years. He is known to have been married, but had no family. His character was amiable rather than strong, but on occasion he could be fearless. It is said that being once plundered by a highwayman, he said that though he would not give his life for his horse or money, he would for the robber's soul, whereupon the man returned both horse and money. Fell was a man of little education. His works were at one time popular, but are now entirely disregarded. He wrote: 1. ‘The Persecution of them People they call Quakers in several places in Lancashire’
