obtain shipping there, proceeded to Alexandria. The English consul banished them from the place as nuisances, and they were compelled to return to England. After spending some time in religious journeys, he again visited the West Indies, and a letter in the Shackleton collection states that in 1672 he was living in Barbadoes, that he was married, in debt, and much depressed. 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. He wrote: 1. ‘An Alarum of Truth sounded forth to the Nations,’ &c., 1660. 2. ‘To Charles, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, from one who is in prison, a Sufferer for the Testimony of his Conscience,’ &c., 1660. 3. ‘A Plain Record or Declaration showing the Original Root and Race of Persecution,’ 1661.
[Bowden's Hist. of the Friends in America, i. 37; Fox's Journal, ed. 1765, pp. 314, 331; Besse's Sufferings of the Quakers, i. 193; Sewel's Hist. of the Rise, &c., ii. 216; Webb's Fells of Swarthmore; Smith's Cat. of Friends' Books.]
FELL, JOHN, D.D. (1625–1686), dean of Christ Church and bishop of Oxford, son of Dr. Samuel Fell [q. v.], dean of Christ Church, and Margaret, daughter of Thomas Wyld, esq., of Worcester, was born at Sunningwell, near Abingdon (according to Wood), or, as is more probable, at Longworth in Berkshire (as stated on his monument), on 23 June 1625. His education was begun at the free school of Thame, Oxfordshire, but at the very early age of eleven he was made a student of Christ Church, on the nomination of his father, dean of that society from 1638 to 1647. In 1643 he took his degree of M.A. At that time he was already in arms for the king in the Oxford garrison, and was soon promoted to the rank of ensign. ‘Of the hundred students of Christ Church,’ says Walker, ‘no less than twenty were officers in the service, and the rest, almost to a man, bore arms.’ Under these circumstances the anger of the parliamentary visitors was certain to light on him, especially as his father, Dr. Samuel Fell, had been throughout the leader of the opposition to the parliament. John Fell was ejected from his studentship (1648). Upon his ejectment, having been ordained in 1647, he associated himself with Dolben, Allestree, and that little knot of clergy who, through all the time of the Commonwealth, contrived to keep up the service of the church of England in Oxford. He lived in a house opposite Merton College, and there the rites of the church, reduced, as Evelyn says, ‘to a chamber and a conventicle,’ were constantly celebrated by him. This bold persistency naturally led to Fell's immediate promotion on the Restoration. On 27 July 1660 he was made canon of Christ Church, in place of Ralph Button [q. v.], ejected. In four months' time he succeeded Dr. Morley as dean (30 Nov. 1660). He was also appointed chaplain to the king, and created D.D. by the university. Some of the ejected students had already been restored by Dr. Morley. Fell hastened to complete the work, and quickly dismissed all who had obtained entrance into the society by irregular means. There appears to have been still somewhat of a puritanical leaven in the college, as it is said by Wood that the organ and surplice were much disliked. The dean, however, was resolute to exact full conformity. In September 1663 Fell entertained Charles II, the queen, and many courtiers at Christ Church, and preached in the royal presence.
At the time of Fell's accession the northern side of Wolsey's great quadrangle lay in a ruinous state. Dr. Samuel Fell had begun to build, but the work had been interrupted by the rebellion, and the timber and materials had been carried away. John Fell immediately undertook the work, and constructed there houses for two canons. He then turned his attention to the chaplains' quadrangle, which had been partially destroyed by a great fire. This he rebuilt, and constructed the arched passage leading into the meadow. In 1674 he completed the lodgings of the canon of the third stall between Tom and Peckwater quadrangles. His last great building work was to rear the stately tower over the principal gateway, to which he transferred the great bell, known as Great Tom of Christ Church, after having had it recast several times. This bell had been previously in the tower of the cathedral church. It was now made to serve a collegiate purpose, being tolled every night at nine o'clock to warn the students to return to their rooms. It was first used for this purpose on 29 May 1684. Fell was most sedulous in attending to the discipline and educational work of his college. His habit was to visit the rooms of the young noblemen and gentlemen commoners, and himself to examine them in their studies. Every year he procured the publication of some classical author, presenting each member of the college with a copy. He attended divine service regularly four times a day. ‘He was the most zealous man of his time for the church of England,’ says Wood; ‘and none that I yet know of did go beyond him in the performance of the rules belonging thereto.’ As to Fell's sermons a curious remark is made by Evelyn, who heard
