Friends Meeting House, Portsmouth, RI

The Friends Meeting House cemetery in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, is part of the historic Portsmouth Friends Meetinghouse, Parsonage, and Cemetery complex. This Quaker site has its origins in the early years of the colony. The Quaker community in Portsmouth began to form shortly after the town’s founding in 1638, when religious dissidents from Massachusetts Bay settled there. The current meetinghouse was constructed around 1699–1700, serving both as a place of worship and a school for local Friends. The cemetery developed alongside the meetinghouse and became the burial ground for Portsmouth’s Quaker community over the centuries. This site has witnessed significant historical events, including British occupation during the American Revolutionary War.