________________________________________ Thank you for the link to Ashmead.  I found mention of my ancestor, Neeles Laerson FRIEND. Pat-T http://www.delcohistory.org/ashmead/ashmead_pg355.htm By patent dated April 9, 1669, Francis Lovelace, Governor-General under the Duke of York, granted unto Neeles Laerson, alias Friend, a large tract of ground comprising one hundred and fifty acres, but which by subsequent survey proved to include in the boundary lines one hundred and eighty-three acres. The patent reserved a yearly rent of one and a half bushels of winter wheat, payable to the king. Laerson entered into possession of the land thus allotted him, built upon and improved the premises. By will, dated Dec. 17, 1686 (he died the following year), Laerson gave authority to his wife to sell the real estate in her discretion. In exercise of this power, Ann Friend (the family had by this time assumed the English alias as their family name, and had abandoned the Swedish patronymic absolutely), the widow, Andrew Friend, son and heir of Laerson and Johannes Friend, the second son, by deed dated May 27, 1689, conveyed the estate to David Lloyd. Lloyd, however, after he built the house whose history I am writing, seemed to have had some doubts of the sufficiency of the title, and therefore, thirty-four years subsequently, July 13, 1723, he had Ann Friend (then one hundred and five years old), and Gabriel Friend and Laurence Friend, the younger sons of Neeles Laerson and Ann, his wife, execute a deed conveying the premises he had purchased in 1686. Parts of the estate thus acquired were sold by Lloyd to Joseph Richardson, and to Rodger Jackson, but he subsequently repurchased the land thus conveyed, and in addition acquired from Jonas Sandelands a considerable tract, until the estate had increased to about five hundred acres.  Pat (Friend) Thompson www.friendfamilyassociation.org