What is "upper ten thousand"

Upper \Up"per\, a.; comp. of Up. Being further up, literally or figuratively; higher in place, position, rank, dignity, or the like; superior; as, the upper lip; the upper side of a thing; the upper house of a legislature. The upper hand, the superiority; the advantage. See To have the upper hand, under Hand. --Jowett (Thucyd.). Upper Bench (Eng. Hist.), the name of the highest court of common law (formerly King's Bench) during the Commonwealth. Upper case, the top one of a pair of compositor's cases. See the Note under 1st Case, n., 3. Upper covert (Zo["o]l.), one of the coverts situated above the bases of the tail quills. Upper deck (Naut.), the topmost deck of any vessel; the spar deck. Upper leather, the leather for the vamps and quarters of shoes. Upper strake (Naut.), the strake next to the deck, usually of hard wood, and heavier than the other strakes. Upper ten thousand, or (abbreviated) Upper ten, the ten thousand, more or less, who are highest in position or wealth; the upper class; the aristocracy. [Colloq.] Upper topsail (Naut.), the upper half of a double topsail. Upper works (Naut.), all those parts of the hull of a vessel that are properly above water. Upper world.

1. The atmosphere.

2. Heaven.

3. This world; the earth; -- in distinction from the underworld.

n. (context dated English) The ten thousand people, more or less, who are highest in position or wealth; the upper class; the aristocracy.

Upper Ten Thousand, or simply, The Upper Ten, is a phrase coined in 1852 by American poet Nathaniel Parker Willis to describe the upper circles of New York, and hence of other major cities.

In 1852, Charles Astor Bristed published a collection of sketches on New York Society entitled "The Upper Ten Thousand." It appeared in the Fraser Magazine. The phrase also appeared in British fiction in The Adventures of Philip (1861-62) by William Thackeray, whose eponymous hero contributed weekly to a fashionable New York journal entitled “The Gazette of the Upper Ten Thousand”. The general acceptance of the term seems to be attested by its use in the title of Edward Abbott's 1864 cookery book, The English and Australian Cookery Book: Cookery for the Many as Well as the 'Upper Ten Thousand'.

In 1875, both Adam Bissett Thom and Kelly's Directory published books entitled The Upper Ten Thousand, which listed members of the aristocracy, the gentry, officers in the British Army and Navy, members of Parliament, Colonial administrators, and members of the Church of England. The usage of this term was a response to the broadening of the British ruling class which had been caused by the Industrial Revolution.

Most of the people listed in Kelly's Handbook to the Upper Ten Thousand were among the 30,000 descendants of Edward III, King of England, tabulated in the Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval's Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal. Most also appeared in Walford's County Families and Burke's Landed Gentry.