HIGHAM, a parish in the hundred of SHAMWELL,
lathe of AYLESFORD, county of KENT, 4 miles (N.
N. W.) from Rochester, containing 568 inhabitants.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese
of Rochester, rated in the king's books at £8. 10., and
in the patronage of the Master and Fellows of St. John's
College, Cambridge. The church is dedicated to St.
Mary. The river Thames bounds the parish on the
north, and the Thames and Medway canal is conducted
into the adjoining parish of Frindsbury by a tunnel two
miles and a quarter in length. One of the pensioners in
Cobham College is to be selected from among the inhabitants.
Gad's hill, mentioned by Shakspeare in his
play of Henry IV., is in this parish. A nunnery of the
Benedictine order, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary,
was founded here, before 1151, by King Stephen, whose
daughter Mary, afterwards abbess of Romsey, became
one of the nuns: it was suppressed by Fisher, Bishop of
Rochester, in the 13th of Henry VIII., and given by the
King to the Master and Fellows of St. John's College,
Cambridge.