In the following year, on the newly remoulded section of the local church, his name appears on the list of laymen for the presbytery of Furness.
From 1650 to 1651, he was chosen as bencher of Gray's Inn, and is recorded as being at that time a judge of assize for the Chester and North Wales circuit.
Although Fell never embraced Quakerism, he granted the use of Swarthmoor Hall for friends to meet in, and frequently sat in an adjoining room with the door open, so as to afford them the protection of his presence.
In 1653, along with other justices, he directed to prevent royalists landing or gathering in Cumberland or Lancashire, and at the end of that year he was, with Bradshaw, appointed a commissioner for reviving the duchy jurisdiction at Westminster.
For several years before his death, Fell withdrew from parliamentary life, disapproving of the Protector's assumption of authority in civil and religious matters.
He was survived by one son and seven daughters, one of whom, Sarah Fell, a Quaker minister, was noted not only for her beauty, but also for her eloquence and knowledge of Hebrew.