MINSTER-IN-SHEPPY, a large parish in the county of Kent, in the hundred of Rinslow and lathe of St Augustine, sixty-eight miles from London. It comprehends the dock-yards and part of the town of Sheerness, and derives its name from a convent of nuns, said to have been founded by a Saxon lady in the year 700. The population amounted in 1801 to 5561, in 1811 to 7003, in 1821 to 8414, and in 1831 to 7983.