occupied her until 1669, when she married George Fox at Bristol, with whom she remained a week, and then returned to Swarthmore, while he continued his ministerial journey. Early in 1670 she was again arrested under an order from the council, and committed to gaol to complete the sentence of præmunire; there is reason to believe that the order was procured by her son, George Fell, in order that he might enter upon the estate which his mother refused to abandon (see letter from Thomas Lower, 19 April 1670, Swarthmore MSS.) Her daughter Sarah at once procured an order from the king for Mrs. Fell's release, which, however, the Lancashire magistrates set aside on technical grounds. In April 1671 she was liberated under a patent. Shortly after her release she went to London to the yearly meeting, and then resided at Kingston-on-Thames with her husband until his departure in August for the West Indies, when she returned to Swarthmore, where she appears to have stayed until the summer of 1673, when she went to Bristol to meet Fox on his return from America. After visiting London with him she accompanied him into Leicestershire, where he was arrested, when she at once returned to London, and at an audience with Charles II begged an order for his release, which the king refused, but offered her a pardon. This she declined to accept, as she considered Fox innocent. From this time till 1689 she resided at Swarthmore, and was several times fined for permitting meetings to take place at her house. Towards the end of the year she spent some months in or near London with her husband, and then returned home. In January 1691 George Fox died, and from this time his widow, although she continued to take great interest in the affairs of the Society of Friends, does not appear to have been actively employed. In 1697 she again visited London, and while there addressed a letter to William III, expressing her gratitude for the protection his government had extended to the Friends. She died 23 April 1702 at Swarthmore, being then in her eighty-eighth year, and was buried in the quaker burial-ground belonging to the Swarthmore meeting. In personal appearance she seems to have been tall and buxom, with a pleasing rather than handsome face. Her correspondence shows her to have been a woman of some culture, of generous disposition, of considerable intellect and warm sympathies. Her charity was great, and she seems to have possessed an infinite capacity for taking trouble for the benefit of others. In her family and business affairs she was just and farseeing, and as a quaker minister she was zealous, simple, and laborious. Her productions are spoiled by their prolixity, and more remarkable for good sense than elegance of style. They breathe a spirit of fervid and sincere piety, but are marred by narrowness.
The most important are: 1. ‘False Prophets, Antichrists, Deceivers which are in the World, which John Prophesied of, which hath long been Hid and Covered, but is now Unmasked,’ &c., 1655. 2. ‘For Manasseh Ben Israel, the Call of the Jewes out of Babylon,’ &c., 1656. 3. ‘A Testimony of the Touchstone for all Professions and all Forms and Gathered Churches,’ &c., 1656. 4. ‘A Loving Salutation to the Seed of Abraham,’ &c., 1656. 5. ‘A True Testimony from the People of God (who by the world are called Quakers) of the Doctrines of the Prophets, Christ, and the Apostles,’ &c., 1660. 6. ‘The Examination and Tryall of Margaret Fell and George Fox,’ &c., 1664. 7. ‘Women's Speaking Justified, Proved, and Allowed of by the Scriptures,’ &c., 1666. 8. ‘The Standard of the Lord revealed,’ &c., 1667. 9. ‘A Touch-Stone, or a Perfect Tryal by the Scriptures of all the Priests, Bishops, and Ministers who have called themselves the Ministers of the Gospel,’ &c., 1667. 10. ‘A Call unto the Seed of Israel, that they may come out of Egypt's Darkness and House of Bondage unto the Land of Rest,’ &c., about 1668. 11. ‘A Brief Collection of Remarkable Passages and Occurrences relating to the Birth, Education, Life, Eminent and Faithful Servent of the Lord, Margaret Fell, but by her Second Marriage, Margaret Fox, together with Sundry of Her Epistles, Books, and Christian Testimonies to Friends and Others,’ &c., 1710 (autobiographical).
[Fell's Brief Collection, &c.; Webb's Fells of Swarthmore Hall; Besse's Sufferings of the People called Quakers, &c., vols. i. and ii.; George Fox's Journal, ed. 1765; Sewel's Hist. of the Rise, &c., i. 157, iv. 362; Piety Promoted, pt. ix.; Life of Margaret Fox, 1859; Smith's Catalogue of Friends' Books; State Papers, Dom. 1664, 523, 1667, 137; Swarthmore MSS.]
FELL, SAMUEL (1584–1649), dean of Christ Church, was born in 1584 in the parish of St. Clement Danes, London and was educated at Westminster School. Thence he proceeded as a queen's scholar to Christ Church, Oxford, matriculating 20 Nov. 1601, and graduated B.A. 27 June 1605, M.A. 30 May 1608, B.D. 23 Nov. 1615, and D.D. 23 June 1619 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc. vol. II. pt. ii. p. 253, pt. iii. p. 256), He was elected proctor in 1614, and soon afterwards became rector of Freshwater in the Isle of Wight, and chaplain to James I. In May 1619 he was made a canon of Christ Church, and in
