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Nicholas "Nils" Larsson Friend (b. 1620, d. 12 Jun 1689)
Nicholas "Nils" Larsson Friend (son of Lars and Brigitta)797, 798, 799, 800, 801, 802, 803 was born 1620 in Dorsetshire, England804, and died 12 Jun 1689 in Upland, Delaware (was Chester) Co., PA805. He married Anna Andersdotter on Nov 1656 in New Amsterdam, NY806, 807, daughter of Anders "The Fin" Andersson and Christina Goolbrandt.
Notes for Nicholas "Nils" Larsson Friend:
[Kathleen Fitzgerald]
Because Nils led a somewhat high-profile life after his arrival in North America, there is quite a bit on record concerning him and members of his family.
". . . . Nils Larsson, who arrived in New Sweden (PA) on the "Swan" in 1648 and served as a warden for Governor Rising 1654. Two years later, he married Anna Andersdotter (possibly the daughter of Anders Andersson the Finn) and settled at Upland (now Chester County), where they raised a family of ten children. His house was also the location of the Swedes' quarterly court sessions after Armegot Printz sold the Printz family's Tinicum Island estate . . . ."
". . . . By 1668 Nils Larsson had adopted the name Frande, meaning "kinsman" or "blood relative" in Swedish. Nils Larsson played a very prominent role in the Swedish community until his death at Upland in the winter of 1686-87. He became known as Nils Larsson Frande, possibly because of his influence among the Indians who considered him a "blood brother." Under English rule, his adopted surname became Anglicized to "Friend . . . ."
His sons and daughters use Nilsson (and Nilsdotter) as well as Friend interchangeable in the records.
[18289.GED Harold Hyatt]
BIOGRAPHY-DEATH: Evelyn Olsen, INDIAN BLOOD; 1967; McClain Printing Co.; pages 17-18;Library of Congress No. 66-24419; available at Cal State Fullerton, 800 N. State College Boulevard, Fullerton, CA -call #f 187 G204; NOTE: Capt. Nicholas Friend died saving his children in a shipwreck around 1675.
[16018.GED from Fred Kindel]
According to correspondent, Richard Earl Friend II.
According to correspondent, Lois Watkins, 1500 Oak Ridge Drive, Neosho, MO 64850: Another name for Captain Nicholas Friend was Nils. She incloses a reproduced chart listing several generations of Friend family compiled by Evelyn Guard Olsen based on research of Col. Lester Friend's "Statistics" and correspondence with Carter W. Friend, author of Friend genealogy books. This chart lists Anna Coleman (not Annie) for wife of John Friend ("Johannes") and lists Henry Coleman as father of Anna. States that Johannes is son of Nils (Nicholas Friend) and Anna and that Johannes died circa 1737 and states "(See Will p. 81 INDIAN BLOOD)".
Correspondent, Lila Mae Vance, Route 2,Box 283A, Glasgow, KY 42141, also inclosed the same chart as Lois Watkins', but with a few handwritten notes added.
[Wilson Hoag]
I offer the following tidbits, as it is unlikely we will be able to "prove" everything at this remove. Very few Delaware River records survive from the period prior to the arrival of the British in 1664. The official Swedish records were destroyed when the Royal Palace burned in the late 1600s and the records of the Dutch West India Company were sold as scrap paper in the early 1800s.
Nils Larsson is first mentioned by name in the Journal of Johan Rising (then governor of New Sweden) with the date of 17 July 1654. Nils was one of two prison keepers detailed to escort several English prisoners from New Sweden to Long Island. The English were arrested for trying to settle on the Delaware. Although first mentioned in 1654, other records suggest he was in the colony by 1650 and possibly arrived on the ship Swan in 1648.
That Nils was of English extraction seems doubtful as both the Dutch and the Swedes considered the English about as welcome as the Plague. They were most frequently fired at when encountered. Several encounters are recorded in John Winthrop's "History of New England."
Nils was married shortly after his return from New Amsterdam, probably in late 1656. His wife Anna is believed to have arrived on the ship Mercurius in March of 1656. Their first known child, Brigitta, was born about 1657. She married John Cock and their first known child was born in 1679.
Nils first appears using the alias Vrende in a 25 June 1668 New Jersey document where he and two others purchased land on the east side of the Delaware. Dr. Peter S. Craig has documented the progression of Vrende, through Frende, to the modern Frände which means kinsman in Swedish. Like the names of many other Swedes, the alias was later Anglicized. Nils was regularly using the alias for several years prior to the demise of often mentioned Captain Nicholas Friend. Oddly enough, in his will he is recorded only as Neels Laarson.
To further complicate this issue, an undated plat map in my possession shows a R. Friend who owned 28 acres in then Chester County, PA, bounded on the south by Chester Creek and on the north by Neels Lauson's 182 acres (land that Nils had since at least April 1669). The same ?? Richard Friend owned 160 acres a mile or so to the west.
Many of Nils' children and their Enochson cousins remained active in the Swedish community both in Chester, PA, and Raccoon Creek (now Swedesboro), NJ, until at least 1739 when several of them moved on to Maryland (Antietam Creek) and later through Virginia (Winchester) to Rowan County, NC.
[Dr. Peter Stebbins Craig http://www.colonialswedes.org/Forefathers/Friend.html]
One relatively unknown forefather, progenitor of the Friend family in America, is Nils Larsson, who arrived in New Sweden on the Swan in 1648 and served as a warden for Governor Rising 1654. Two years later, he married Anna Andersdotter (possibly the daughter of Anders Andersson the Finn) and settled at Upland (now Chester), where they raised a family of ten children. His house was also the location of the Swedes' quarterly court sessions after Armegot Printz sold the Printz family's Tinicum Island estate.
Nils Larsson played a very prominent role in the Swedish community until his death at Upland in the winter of 1686-87. He became known as Nils Larsson Frände, meaning "kinsman" or "blood relative" in Swedish, possibly because of his influence among the Indians who considered him a "blood brother." Under English rule, his adopted surname became Anglicized to "Friend." In 1668, Nils and two other Swedes secured a permit from the governor of the new province of New Jersey to buy lands from the Indians in present Gloucester County. The resulting acquisition led to a large Swedish settlement centering around Raccoon Creek (present Swedesboro).
Nils Larsson Frände also acquired lands in present Bucks County, which he traded to William Penn in return for 800 acres east of Red Clay Creek in New Castle County. Penn built his Pennsbury estate on Frände's former land.
At the time of his death, Nils Larsson was serving as constable for Chester township. His wife Anna survived him by about 40 years and was said to be over 106 when she died.
More About Nicholas "Nils" Larsson Friend:
Date born 2: 1616808
Date born 3: 1619, Goteborg, Sweden.809
Date born 4: Abt. 1630, England.810
Date born 5: 1630, Goteborg, Sweden.811
Died 2: Abt. 1675, Atlantic Ocean.812
Died 3: 1686813
Died 4: 1686, Chester, Deleware, PA.814
Died 5: 12 Jun 1686, Upland, Delaware Co., PA.815
More About Nicholas "Nils" Larsson Friend and Anna Andersdotter:
Marriage: Nov 1656, New Amsterdam, NY.816, 817
Children of Nicholas "Nils" Larsson Friend and Anna Andersdotter are:
- +John T. Friend, b. 1666, Upland, Chester County, PA818, 819, 820, d. Dec 1737, Upper Penns Neck, Salem Co., NJ821.

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