After his return to England he was engaged as a travelling preacher, and is referred to by his contemporaries as having been eloquent and successful.
In 1659 he was seriously ill-treated by some soldiers near Westminster Hall, and in 1660 Richard Hubberthorne, the quaker, represented to Charles II that at Thetford, Norfolk, Fell had been hauled out of a meeting, and, after being whipped, turned out of the town, and passed as a vagabond from parish to parish to Lancashire.
He was in London during the rising of the Fifth-monarchy men in this year, and was knocked down by the soldiers as a rioter, and Fox (Journal, p. 314, ed.
In 1661 he was ‘moved,’ in company with John Stubbs, to promulgate his views in ‘foreign parts, especially to Prester John's country and China.’ As no shipmasters would carry them, the quakers got a warrant from the king, which the East India Company found means to avoid.
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 Barbados, that he was married, in debt, and much depressed.