patriciate

plural patriciates

1. The rank of a patrician
2. The aristocracy or nobility

   1 more example

   The idea of his frivolity had, no doubt, to do with his personal designation, which represented—as yet, for our young woman, a little confusedly—a connection with an historic patriciate, a class that, in turn, also confusedly, represented an affinity with a social element that she had never heard otherwise described than as "fashion."

   1902, Henry James, The Wings of the Dove

3. the non-noble upper class, or the upper bourgeoisie