Founded in 1705, the Smithfield Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends is the oldest continuously-operating institution in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, and is historically one of the most important meetings in the northern part of the state. The varied names and locations of the meeting can, at first, be a challenge to sort out. The meeting originated in Saylesville, R.I., in 1705 as the Providence Preparative Meeting under care of Greenwich Monthly. Set off as the Providence Monthly Meeting in 1718, its first meetinghouse was erected in present-day Woonsocket a year later, with the current building replacing it after a fire in 1881. The meeting changed name to Smithfield in 1731 after the town of that of that name was incorporated out of Providence. Finally, in 1781, Smithfield Monthly was divided into four parts: Smithfield Monthly (at "Upper Smithfield"), Uxbridge Monthly (in Massachusetts), Providence Monthly, and Lower Smithfield Constituent Meeting (also known as Saylesville Meeting, now under care of the new Providence Monthly Meeting).

Over the years, Smithfield was a center of social activism. During the antebellum period, it was a hotbed of abolitionist sentiment, admitting enslaved and freed people into membership, and disowning one particularly prominent member -- Stephen Hopkins, Governor of Rhode Island and signer of the Declaration of Independence -- for refusing to manumit the people he enslaved. The meetinghouse, parsonage, and cemetery are all listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Smithfield has been a pastoral meeting since before the turn of the twentieth century, although it currently hosts one unprogrammed meeting for worship monthly. It was a member of Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting (1718-1801), Smithfield Quarterly (1801-1971), Rhode-Island-Smithfield (1971-?), and Southeast Quarter. It has overseen numerous worship groups and preparative meetings in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.