The following should be edited to reflect the fact that Sarah Friend, not Sarah Richards, is the identity of the individual as they went about living their life in relation to the Public Universal Friend. As such, the references below should be changed from Richards -> Sarah. When your unhappy marriage ends, and historians, which is what we are attempting to be here, continue to use your dead husband's last name to refer to you, it's a sort of historical microaggression of misogynistic "man-washing" of your accomplishments.
"Around 1785, the Friend met Sarah and Abraham Richards. The Richards' unhappy marriage ended in 1786, when Abraham died on a visit to the Friend. Sarah, together with her infant daughter, took up residence with the Friend, adopted a similarly androgynous hairstyle, dress, and mannerisms (as did a few other close female friends), and came to be called Sarah Friend."
"The Friend entrusted Richards Sarah with holding the society's property in trust, and sent her to preach in one part of the country when the Friend was in another. Richards Sarah had a large part in planning and building the house in which she and the preacher lived in the town of Jerusalem, and when she died in 1793, she left her child to the Friend's care."
This also helps with clarity, as Abraham Richards did exist, but he was not the one the Friend relied upon to do the things described in the preceding paragraph. Leaving it simply as "Richards" allows for possible misunderstanding by those who may cite this article in part rather than in full. Also, we want to use Sarah rather than Richards or Sarah Friend as we do not have the exact dates on when she "came to be called Sarah Friend" without further research, and again out of respect for the person who ultimately became Sarah Friend, she appears to have gone by Sarah the entire time. Cyrusmagnusx (talk) 04:37, 27 February 2025 (UTC)
