| The Lavender Family |
St Stephen's Church, Barbourne |
THE LAVENDER FAMILY
John Pearkes Lavender was a successful mid-Victorian man of property and considerable wealth. The Tithe Award Map of 1843 reveals that he owned virtually all the land from Barbourne Brook to Bevere on the river side of Ombersley Road. He lived in some style at Lavender House with his wife Jane. The marriage resulted in two daughters; Jane who never married, and Mary who married one John Mathew Gutch. John Gutch seems to have involved himself in many interests and particularly the literary circles of the time, being a friend and confident of Coleridge, Wordsworth and the like.
John Lavender had built up the family fortunes, not least by means of the "Farley, Lavender and Owen Bank" in Worcester. He had been a Governor of the County Gaol and was Mayor of the City in 1833. Certainly the family fortunes would have seemed secure when he died in 1846. Sadly he had reckoned without the intervention of John Gutch, who having spent the fortune of his first wife, now proceeded to do the same with Mary Lavender's inheritance. It could be said of him that he was wise in all things save the discharge of his business affairs. By 1858 his involvement with Farley, Lavender and Owen Bank had brought it into financial ruin and he was declared bankrupt.
In order to maintain the honour of the Lavender family name, the two sisters felt obliged to honour Promissory Notes that had been issued by the Bank. This action substantially reduced their financial circumstances. Since the projected founding of St. Stephen's Church was virtually dependent upon their patronage, for a while it appeared that the building of the Church might not come about. In the event the sisters were able to provide about one-half of the cost of construction in addition to donating the land. It is left for us now to reflect that perhaps, but for the misfortunes or indeed mistakes of John Gutch, the construction of the Church might have assumed a total different nature to that which we see now.
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