Does "above all his neighbors" mean "rather than his neighbors"?

Context:

A silly fellow, named William Montgomery, a carpenter, had a
mortal antipathy to cats; and somehow or other these animals
generally chose his back-yard as the scene of their catterwaulings.
He puzzled his brains for a long time to know why he, above all
his neighbors, should be so pestered. At last he came to the sage
conclusion that his tormentors were no cats, but witches. In this
opinion he was supported by his maid-servant, who swore a
round oath that she had often heard the aforesaid cats talking
together in human voices. The next time the unlucky tabbies
assembled in his back-yard, the valiant carpenter was on the alert.
Arming himself with an axe, a dirk, and a broadsword, he rushed
out among them. One of them he wounded in the back, a second