Portsmouth Friends Meetinghouse Parsonage and Cemetery
- Also Known As: Friends Meeting House
- Address: 11 Middle Rd and 2232 E Main Rd
| Y/M/D | Person | Association | Description | Composition | Food | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Y/M/D | Person | Association | Description | Composition | Food | Event |
| 1691/10/22 | Although the meeting of Friends at Portsmouth began about 1658, the first reference to a public meeting house appears in the Rhode Island Friends Monthly Meeting Records. | |||||
| 1699/11/00 | Appointed in December 1698, the committee for the new building is given authority to dispose of the "land and house where ye ould meeting house is." | |||||
| 1702/02/28 | Quakers | Vocation | Begun in 1699, The Portsmouth Friends Meeting House is complete enough to hold its first meeting. It will be altered several times in subsequent years. | |||
| 1706/00/00 | The Friends Cemetery (later, the Rhode Island Historical Cemetery) is established about 1706, although the earliest individual markers date back only to the 1830s. | |||||
| 1731/00/00 | Additions made to the Friends Meetinghouse in 1705, 1719-1720 and 1731. The basic fabric and plan of the meeting house remain essentially as they had developed by c 1731. The essentially medieval quality of the meeting room is still palpable. | |||||
| 1778/08/29 | The Battle of Quaker Hill occurs in the immediate vicinity of the Portsmouth Friends Meetinghouse. Cannonballs will be discovered during the excavating the cellar in 1955. | Battle of Rhode Island | ||||
| 1779/01/24 | Jacob Mott, who died 24 January 1779, is buried near his home rather than at "the Meeting house at Portsmouth and Burying Ground also ... Being at that time occupied by a number of German Troops for which Reasons it was Thought best by his Childrens (sic) | |||||
| 1784/00/00 | Moses Brown of Providence | Vocation | A committee of New England Yearly Meeting which includes Moses Brown opens a school at Portsmouth Friends Meeting House in Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island. Its thirty students board with local Friends. | |||
| 1785/00/00 | Isaac Lawton | Work | Isaac Lawton, a prosperous Portsmouth farmer and miller, and formerly a clerk of the Yearly Meeting, works as the instructor at the Friends boarding school. | |||
| 1788/00/00 | Moses Brown of Providence | Vocation | Due to the trade conditions and the general impoverishment of the Quakers who remained on Aquidneck after the war, the Portsmouth Friends school closes for lack of financial support. Funds remaining from the school are entrusted to Moses Brown. | |||
| 1891/00/00 | The parsonage is built by the Portsmouth meeting's first paid pastor. Prior to c 1890, the meeting relied on its membership to produce leaders who by their thought and action showed forth their calling to minister to the congregation on an unpaid basis. |
| Particulars for Portsmouth Friends Meetinghouse Parsonage and Cemetery: | |
|---|---|
| Area of Significance | Architecture |
| Criteria | Architecture-Engineering |
| Sight Category | Building |
| Historic Use | Cemetery |
| Building Use | Clergy House: Manse, Parsonage, Rectory, Vicarage |
| Area of Significance | Education |
| Criteria | Historic Event |
| Area of Significance | Military |
| Attribute | Moved property |
| Level of Significance | National |
| Area of Significance | Politics-government |
| Owner | Private |
| Historic Use | Religious Property |
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