Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. Anglo-Ind.) a single man; an ‘eligible bachelor’.

1829		‘Sir Toby Rendrag’ Poems 45: Fronting Chouringhee lies that famous course, / Where morn and ev’ning drives yield health and pleasure; / Where eligibles lisp forth soft discourse / To their intended – last, though needful measure.
1841		F.J. Bellew ‘Memoirs of a Griffin’ in Asiatic Jrnl & Mthly Register May 51: Mark how he rattles, and says his agreeable things, with all the airs of a conscious ‘eligible,’ whilst the gratified vanity of the woman sparkles in her eyes and glows in her animated countenance.
1844		Calcutta Rev. 1 10: In the present day, there is no scarcity of brides; and Merchants’ clerks and Ensigns are eligibles.
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 18 May 19/2: [caption] Making a dead set at thoroughly appreciative eligible.
1888		Kipling ‘A Second-rate Woman’ in Under the Deodars 106: ‘I dislike him because he is generally in the wake of some girl, disappointing the Eligibles’.
1906		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 10 Feb. 5/1: The prince is eligible in every sense of the term.
1916		B.M. Croker Babes in the Wood 194: ‘Then what are you going to do, if you will not accept any of these eligibles? Of course, your mother is most frightfully disappointed’.
1934		C.S. Johnson Shadow of the Plantation 55: The most desirable mates for girls in those families ambitious to maintain a stable unit are men who can assure further stability. Unfortunately for romantic love, the economic arrangement under which they live does not develop many eligibles for daughters of such families.