James Elder As Trader
Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 6 March 1819
ON SALE at the House of Mr. JAMES ELDER, George-street, Parramatta, the following Articles:--Best hyson, hyson skin, and souchong tea, sugar, soap, English salt, saltpetre, English and Bengal prints, elegant bed furniture, very fine calicoes, and coarse ditto, by the piece or yard, long cloth, Scotch cambric, very fine pumjum, lenos, plain and figured muslin, black silk handkerchiefs, bandannas, muslin pocket handerchiefs, calico shirts, men and women's cotton hose, ladies' kid gloves, good Brazil tobacco, fish-hooks, garden lines, paint and lamp oil ; also, drest kangaroo and other leather of Wilshire's manufacture, known to be the best in the Colony.
Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 1 May 1819
ON SALE, at the House of Mr. JAMES ELDER, Parramatta; -Best hyson, hyson skin, and souchong teas, sugar, soap, salt, saltpetre, pepper, paint oil, lamp oil, Brazil tobacco, English and Bengal prints, fine English gingham, black queen stuff, bed furniture, fine punjum, pink sarsnet, muslin, shawls, fine calicoes, coarse do. as low as 1s. 4d. per yard, best mull mulls, cambric muslins, striped ditto, lenos, a superfine blue coat, sewing silks, English window glass 8 by 10, Guy's new British spelling books, Howe's new improved ditto, ladies' kid gloves, ready-made shirts, men and women's cotton stockings, Pondicherry blue cloth, white lead, and sheet tin, best white wine vinegar, and plumbs 1s. per lb.
N. B. -All sorts of Wilhire's best manufactured leather.
Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 5 June 1819
ON SALE, at the House of Mr. JAMES ELDER, Parramatta, the best hoop iron, and blister steel, sheet tin, and tin ware, English and Bengal prints, calico, punjum, muslins, Scotch cambric, fine muslin shawls, women's black worsted stockings, English ginghams, ready-made shirts, calimancoes, pink sarsnet, sewing silks and silk twist of every colour, Brazil tobacco, lamp oil, paint ditto, Venetian red, and white paints, salt, and salt petre, pepper, soap, cheese, teas, sugar, leather, window glass 8 by 10, and the best white wine vinegar.
Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 10 July 1819
ON SALE, at the House of James Elder, Parramatta, the best hyson, hyson skin and souchong teas, sugar, Bengal soap, white lead, paint oil, sheet tin, Brazil tobacco, ginger, rice, saltpetre, English and Bengal prints, check, dungaree, Scotch cambric, fine punjum, thread lace, letting-in, book, mull mull, and other muslins, neck and pocket handkerchiefs, silk for bonnets, ready-made shirts, coarse and fine calico, muslin and other shawls, pink sarsnet, cotton stockings, awl blades, copper wire, spades and shovels.
N.B.—About 25 cwt of sloop iron, and 700 cwt. of blister steel; a reasonable price will be taken for the whole.
... and then on 6 August 1820:
MR. James Elder, of the Town of Parramatta, respectfully informs the Inhabitants in its Vicinity, that he has opened a BAKER'S SHOP, where they may be always supplied with Bread, of an excellent Quality. Flour and Bran also may be had at the lowest Rate.
This is after he opened his baker's shop:
Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 27 January 1821
On SALE at JAMES ELDER'S, Parramatta, a small Consignment of well chosen Books of Arithmetic, English Grammar, Geography, and Book-keeping, well adapted for Schools; also Pocket Bibles, very elegantly bound in two volumes, Wardlaw on the Socinian Controversy, Haldane's Evidence and Authority of the New Testament, Walker's Pronouncing Dictionary, at present the very Standard of the English Language, together with many other valuable Works.
Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 15 November 1822
CHEAP BOOKS.-On SALE, at Mr. JAMES ELDER'S, George-street, Parramatta, the following WORKS, at reduced prices, to close Consignments; 40 Sets of the Edinburgh Monthly Review; the Edinburgh Annual Register, 3 vols; Scotch Repository Tracts; Brown, on Rural Aftairs, 2 vols; Kincaid's Geography; Fuller, on the Book of Genesis; Ray's Proverbs; Dodd's Comfort to the Afflicted; Paley's Theology; Erskine's Dissertations; Philemon on the Progress of Virtue, 2 vols; Meikle's Select Remains; Irvine's Lives of the Poets; Brown's Collection of Religious Letters; Simpson's Visit to Flanders, or, Battle of Waterloo; Shepherd's Paris; M'Kenzie's Works; Haldane's Evidence and Authority of Divine Revelation; Hamilton's Introduction to Merchandise; Davidson's System of Practical Mathematics; Main's Book-keeping; the Constellation; Select Tracts; 66 Pamphlets, or the supposed Address of a Member of a Bible Association, to promote the objects such Institutions have in view. Credit will be given, if required.
But then it's back to the old sort of stock....
Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 6 February 1823
ON SALE, at Mr. JAMES ELDER'S, George-street, Parramatta, sheet tin, by the box or single sheet,Canton cloth, dungaree, Bengal check, English and Bengal prints, calico, shirting, plain and spotted muslin, cotton stockings, plain worsted ditto, coloured jean, fustian, black silk, black and coloured sewing silk, black queen's stuff, gloves, D. D. and English soap, candles, lamp oil, ginger, nutmegs, allspice, plums, flour by the 100lbs, gunpowder and shot, shoemakers' hemp, mustard, and many other articles.
Matthew Bacon, also in George Street Parramatta, was selling brandy, wine, rum, gin, assorted French cordials, ratafia, arrowroot, tobacco, soap, salt and Irish mess pork, so it wasn't just James Elder whose stock was eclectic.