Upper ten thousand
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Upper Ten Thousand was a term used in the late 19th century to denote Britain's ruling elite; those rich and landed persons and families, titled and untitled, who were thought to control the vast majority of the country's political and financial system. This term included not only landed gentry, aristocracy, and the peerage; it also included the industrialists and financiers of the day. The invention of this term was a response to the broadening of the British elite caused by the Industrial Revolution.
Starting in 1875 Kelly's directories published annually The Upper Ten Thousand [1] After three editions and for the next century it was called by its original subtitle A Handbook of the Titled and Official Classes.
Most of the people listed in the Handbook 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 (London: T. C. & E. C. Jack, 1903). Most also appeared in Walford's County Families and Burke's Landed Gentry.
