The aim of the study was to identify the features of the formation and development of the traditions of elite family education and home education in Russia among the district merchants in the 19th - early 20th centuries. Methods: within the framework of the elite pedagogical approach, methods of historical reconstruction, description and explanation, analysis of historical and pedagogical, published and archival sources were used. Results. Based on the analysis of the essence and specifics of the elite pedagogical processes taking place in the family, and the role and place of the merchant class in the social and cultural life of the county town in the period under review, the dominant traditions were identified using the examples of the best practices of education and development of merchant youth in the county towns of Saratov and Vyatka provinces. training and education: orientation to the elite ideal, prevailing in the upper classes; development of the child's personality based on his interests and independent cognitive activity; a departure from utilitarianism in the content of training and education; national orientation, reliance on the values of Russian culture in family education. Output. Family education and home education in the families of county merchants in the 19th - 20th centuries is a special case of the development of elite pedagogy and practice in Russia, which has not reached its highest development in comparison with elite home education and upbringing of the capital's merchants.