Note 97 — THE HOME OF LEPSIUS.

From the pamphlet written by father Lepsius on the occasion of the baptism of his oldest grandson Richard, entitled: “The ancestors of the Lepsius Family, Naumburg, 1851,” we see that the family of Lepsius was originally called Leps, and appears to be indebted for its name to the little village of Leps, in the Duchy of Anhalt-Dessau, the ancestral home of the family. It is derived perhaps from the Wendish Lipz, the linden-tree, which word must also be the root of the name of the city of Leipsic. The oldest authentic ancestor is the master tawer, George Leps, at Trebbin in the Mittelmark, who died in 1699. The grandson of this George was the first who changed the name Leps into Lepsius. His father, in addition to the tawer’s craft, carried on a trade in leather and wool, “and was well off, and held in respect and esteem by his fellow citizens.” At the baptism of his child, as if he designed him for a scholar, he bestowed upon him the Latin names, Petrus Christophorus. The latter it was who removed the family to Naumburg, and as Dr. jur. he was administrator of several courts, provost of the cathedral, etc. He died in 1793. He, the great grandfather of Richard Lepsius, like his grandfather and father, was a lawyer.