Some months ago we published an enquiry about 'criminal ancestors'. One of the people mentioned in the story was a Mr Hepting. Today we have had an interesting response from Sandy Harrison, who writes:


The “Mr. Hepting” referred to in this article is Lambert Hepting, Sr., my husband’s gr-gr-grandfather.  Lambert was born in 1833 in Neukirch, Baden, Germany, in the Black Forest region.  He apprenticed under his father, Sebastian Hepting, to learn clock and watch making.  In the 1850’s he came to Scotland.  He apprenticed under his uncle Peter Ketterer for several years.  In 1861, he opened his own jewelry store, Hepting Jewelers at 11 Murray Place, Stirling.  Lambert married Mary Campbell Mitchell McLachlan and they had several children.  Lambert died in 1890.

His son, Lambert Hepting, Jr. took over the shop.  One day, he was looking for something.  He kept a gun in for protection due to the nature of his business.  He took the gun out of the drawer and continued to search through the drawer.  He did not see his 7 year old daughter come in.  She picked up the gun and it accidentally went off shooting Lambert, Jr.  He survived for several days before he passed away in 1913.  His widow, Mary (Greenhorn) Hepting continued to run the store on her own until 1922.  At this point she took on a partner, Mr. Farrer, and the store was renamed Hepting & Farrer.  Mary passed away in 1949 and the Hepting family had no further ownership in the business.  The store continued to operate at the same location where Lambert, Sr. had opened the business until 2012.  Sometime in the 1990’s, the store was sold to Fraser Hart, Ltd.  In 2012, the moved the store to a new location and changed the name to Fraser Hart, Ltd.

I have more information on the Hepting family if you are interested.  There is [presently, January 2014] an example of Lambert, Jr.’s work for sale at this antique dealer if you’d like to see some photos: 

http://www.sellingantiques.co.uk/249869/large-oak-cased-wall-clock-signed-hepting-stirling/


It would be great to have more stories like this about Stirling's old business and connections.  You can post updates to this story for about a month but you can always contact is via the website.