FELL, SAMUEL, son of Hugh Fell, St. Clement Danes, London, citizen and barber-surgeon; bapt. 3 May 1584; adm.; QS; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1601, matr. 20 Nov 1601, aged 17, Westminster Student to 1616; BA 1605; MA 1608; BD 1615; DD 1619; Proctor 1614; ordained; Prebendary of St. Paul’s from 29 Jan 1612/3; Canon of Christ Church, Oxford 19 May 1619 - Jun 1638; Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, Oxford 5 Jul 1627 - 10 Mar 1637; also Prebendary of Worcester, attached to Professorship, May 1629 - 38; Master of St. Oswald’s Hospital, Worcester, from 1631; Dean of Lichfield 1637-8; Dean of Christ Church 28 Jun 1638 - 2 Mar 1647/8, when deprived by Parliamentary Visitors for “high contempt”; Vice-Chancellor, Oxford Univ., 1645 - 8 Oct 1647, when removed by Visitors; his wife refused to vacate the Deanery and was carried out into the quadrangle in a chair by soldiers and there left with her children; after a short period of imprisonment in London Fell retired to the Rectory of Sunningwell, near Abingdon, Berks., to which he had been appointed 21 Sep 1625; responsible for the construction of the handsome staircase leading to Christ Church Hall; m. 1624 Margaret, dau. of Thomas Wyld, The Commandery, Worcester, by whom he was the father of John Fell, Dean of Christ Church and Bishop of Oxford; d. 2 Feb 1648/9. DNB.
