FELL, Thomas (1600-58), of Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston, Lancs.

Family and Education

bap. 13 Mar. 1600, 1st s. of George Fell of Hawkswell, Lancs. and ?Elizabeth, wid. of John Jackson.Dalton-in-Furness par. reg.; Ulverston Par. Regs. ed. C.W. Bardsley, L.R. Ayre (Ulverston, 1886), 90. educ. ?Univ. Coll. Oxf. 23 June 1621; ?BA 29 May 1623;Al. Ox. G. Inn 20 Oct. 1623.G. Inn Admiss. 171. m. ?10 Dec. 1632, Margaret (d. 23 Apr. 1702), da. of John Askew of Marsh Grange, Dalton-in-Furness, Lancs. 1s. 7da. 1ch. d.v.p.Urswick in Furness ed. H. Brierley (Lancs. Par. Reg. Soc.), 37; M. Fell, A Brief Colln. of Remarkable Passages...Rel. to...Margaret Fell (1710), 2; Ulverston Par. Regs. ed. Bardsley, Ayre, xlix; Jnl. of George Fox, i. 407; ‘Margaret Fell’, Oxford DNB. suc. fa.?; d. 8 Oct. 1658.Ulverston Par. Regs. ed. Bardsley, Ayre, 154.

Offices Held

Legal: called, G. Inn 21 Nov. 1631; ancient, 24 Nov. 1645; bencher, 10 Feb. 1651.PBG Inn, i. 308, 354, 380. Att. gen. Cheshire and Flint 6 Mar. 1648–20 July 1649.CJ v. 481a; vi. 266a; LJ x. 98b. Sjt.-at-law and ?att.-gen. duchy of Lancaster 3 Aug. 1649–?;PRO30/26/21, pp. 51, 64; Duchy of Lancaster Office-Holders ed. R. Somerville, 51, 101. v.-chan. 4 Sept. 1649-c.Oct. 1653;E351/1959; PRO30/26/21, pp. 34, 45; Duchy of Lancaster Office-Holders ed. R. Somerville, 95. commr. seal, 17 Sept. 1653 – 1 Jan. 1654, 28 Feb.-9 June 1654;CJ vii. 320a; Duchy of Lancaster Office-Holders ed. R. Somerville, 2; A. and O. commr. and judge, 9 June 1654–?d.A. and O. Second justice, Chester, Flint, Denb. and Mont. 10 Aug. 1649–d.CJ vi. 277b; vii. 749a.

Local: commr. assessment, Lancs. 1642, 26 Jan. 1643, 24 Feb. 1643, 18 Oct. 1644, 23 June 1647, 16 Feb. 1648, 7 Dec. 1649, 26 Nov. 1650, 10 Dec. 1652, 24 Nov. 1653, 9 June 1657;SR; LJ v. 573b; A. and O.; An Act for an Assessment (1653, E.1062.28). sequestration, 27 Mar. 1643; levying of money, 7 May, 3 Aug. 1643; Northern Assoc. 20 June 1645; taking accts. in northern cos. 29 July 1645; defence of Lancs. 29 Aug. 1645.A. and O. J.p. 4 Aug. 1646–d.;Lancs. RO, QSC/42–61. Denb. 10 Aug. 1649–d.;C193/13/3; Justices of the Peace ed. Phillips, 76. Flint, Mont. 25 July 1650–d.;C231/6, p. 196; Justices of the Peace ed. Phillips, 112. Cheshire by Nov. 1650–d.The Names of the Iustices of Peace (1650, E.1238.4). Commr. militia, Lancs. 2 Dec. 1648;A. and O. maintenance of ministers, 29 Mar. 1650.Lancs. and Cheshire Church Surveys ed. H. Fishwick (Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. i), i. 1. Judge, relief of poor prisoners, 5 Oct. 1653. Commr. ejecting scandalous ministers, 28 Aug. 1654.A. and O.

Civic: freeman, Liverpool by Jan. 1645–d.G. Chandler, Liverpool under Charles I, 326, 329; Liverpool Town Bks. 1649–71 ed. M. Power (Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. cxxxvi), 2, 51. Retained counsel, Chester 20 Nov. 1646–4 Feb. 1653.Cheshire RO, ZAB/2, ff. 79v, 101v; ZAF/28/6.

Military: lt.-col. of ft. (parlian.) by Jan. 1645–?Jan. 1646.Add. 59661, f. 10; Chandler, Liverpool, 326; Gratton, Lancs. 286.

Religious: elder, ninth Lancs. classis, 1646.LJ viii. 512.

Central: member, cttee. for plundered ministers, 4 July 1650.CJ vi. 437a.

Parlimentarian

FELL, Thomas (1600-58), of Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston, Lancs.

: Ulverston, Lancs.

Volume

Commons 1640-1660

Web Title

FELL, Thomas (1600-58), of Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston, Lancs.

Will

23 Sept. 1658, pr. 4 Dec. 1658.PROB11/285, f. 62v.

Estates

about 1632, acquired Marsh Grange by marriage and purchase.N. Penney, ‘George Fell and the story of Swarthmoor Hall’, Jnl. Friends’ Historical Soc. xxix. 51; A.W. Braithwaite, ‘The mystery of Swarthmoor Hall’, Jnl. Friends’ Historical Soc. li. 25. In 1634, acquired a moiety of three water mills and one windmill in Dalton-in-Furness.Cumb. RO (Kendal), WDRAD/T/18. About 1640, estate reckoned to worth £150 p.a.Blackwood, Lancs. 94. In 1650, he and Thomas Birche* purchased from a private seller former crown manor of Haslingden, Lancs. for £350, which they sold in 1652.Lancs. RO, QDD/50/23; I. Gentles, ‘The Debentures Market and Military Purchases of Crown Land, 1649-60’ (London Univ. PhD thesis, 1969), 254, 280. In 1650-1, Fell purchased fee farm rents in Lancs. worth at least £402 p.a. for at least £5,084.SP28/288, ff. 9, 10, 45, 52; Lancs. RO, QDD/50/19; Cumb. RO (Kendal), WDRAD/T/19; B.G. Blackwood, ‘The Lancs. Gentry, 1625-60: a Social and Economic Study’ (Oxford Univ. DPhil. thesis, 1973), 362. In 1651, he and Samuel Terricke* purchased former church property in rectory of Whalley, Lancs. for £1,602.C54/3634/29. In 1652, Fell, Birche and four others purchased fee farm rents in former crown manor of West Derby, Lancs. for £1,816 (part of which they sold in 1654).C54/3674/1; C54/3801/15. In 1652, Fell and Birche purchased, for £4,815, fee farm rents in Lancs. worth £369 p.a.SP28/288, ff. 56, 58, 61, 62, 63. In 1652, Fell purchased fee farm rents in Backbarrow, Hawkshead and Lowick, Lancs. for £789.C54/3774/15. At his d. estate inc. manors of Blawith and Nibthwaite and a moiety of manor of Ulverston, Lancs.VCH Lancs. viii. 354; ‘Thomas Fell’, Oxford DNB.

Oxford 1644

Addresses

chambers at G. Inn, Holborn Ct. (by 1654).I. Ross, Margaret Fell: the Mother of Quakerism (1984), 116.

Religion

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