nabobship

nabob +‎ -ship

nabobship (plural nabobships)

1. (historical) The rank or condition of a nabob.
   • 1687, Records of Fort St. George, Diary and Consultation Book, Madras: 1916, entry for November 1687, p. 180,

     […] Potty Cawn was discharged from his Nabobship, and return’d to his Governm^t att Changalaput […]

   • 1768, Alexander Dow (translator), The History of Hindostan by Firishta, London: T. Becket and P.A. de Hondt, Volume 2, Section 2, p. 33,

     Abdulla, returning towards his government, was, the first night after his taking leave of the Nizam, found dead in his bed; not without suspicion of poison from Anwar ul Dien Chan, who succeeded him in the nabobship of Arcot, in the year 1157.

   • 1884, Dosabhai Framji Karaka, chapter 1, in History of the Parsis‎, volume 1, London: Macmillan, page 50:

     The first enceinte [of Surat] was constructed some years after, and the second some more than fifty years ago, under the nabobship of Hyder Kuli Khan

   • 1987, Lin Carter, chapter 15, in Mandricardo‎, New York: Daw, page 132:

     “ […] Cook’ll be servin’ ragout of peacock, Bird of Paradise on toast, broiled ibis, nightingale’s brains—yew feelin’ all right, yer nabobship?”

2. (figurative, archaic) A position of extremely great wealth.
   • 1772, James Iredell, letter dated 20 July, 1772, cited in Don Higginbotham (ed.), The Papers of James Iredell, Raleigh, NC: Division of Archives and History, Department of Cultural Resources, 1976, p. 109,

     […] an encumbered West India Estate, with the tax of high living, is no Nabobship, and an unfortunate Crop is a very severe shock to such a one.

   • 1792, Edmund Randolph, letter dated 25 May, 1792, cited in Frances Norton Mason (ed.), John Norton & Sons, Merchants of London and Virginia, New York: A.M. Kelley, 1968, p. 503,

     He bought a coachee, and had his own horses from home. They travelled [in] the stile of ancient Virginia Nabobship.

   • 1795, Noah Webster, quoted in the papers of Oliver Wolcott Jr., cited in Leonard D. White, The Federalists, New York: Macmillan, 1964, p. 273,

     If men, who are loading the govt with curses, & denouncing our Chief Magistrate, as a tyrant […] are to be raised to opulence and nabobship, […] who are the friends that will maintain that govt?