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Friends Burial Ground (NT008)
- Located at Tilden, Feke Edward and White Streets in Newport
- 150 ft x 500 ft in size
- 500 burials (Quaker records provide information about burials)
- 363 inscriptions
- Oldest stone 1743 (John Huntington)
Most notable graves
- Governor Gideon Wanton (1693-1767) governor 1745-46, 47-48
- John Townsend (1732c-1809), famed cabinetmaker.
The burial ground was created in an area, owned by the Society of Friends, in what was called The Meadow Field. Part of the field was later sold for streets and house lots.
The Meeting House Yard was also used by the Society for burials and was likely the area between the Meeting House and the former Mumford School.
Some Quakers were buried either without stone markers or with very simply carved stones. The stones in this site follow that tradition unlike larger, more elaborately carved Quaker stones in the Clifton and Coddington sites.
Some Quakers believed the names of the month had Pagan origins and should not be used on gravestones. Numbers were used to express dates rather than month names. Edward Anthony died on “July 7, 1853” but his stone (below) states “7th mo. 7th 1853.” Some Quakers buried people as they died rather than in family groupings.
Quaker stones and burials were common in this site up to about 1890 and the last known Quaker buried here was Horace Williams in 1918. As the 20th century progressed, non-Quaker burials in this site increased. Members of Newport’s Greek and Cape Verdean community are buried here as well as veterans from the Spanish-American War to the Viet Nam War.
The Newport Quaker Meeting dissolved and the Meeting House was sold to the city. The Providence Quaker Meeting sold the burial site to Island Cemetery on January 20, 1932.
Use this link for a complete listing of burials in this site on the Rhode Island database
