Chance, Robert Lucas

HCR diary 10.6.1824 (at James Gillman's in Highgate where Coleridge lived) "There was also a Mr Chance who broke out at last by an opposition to Mr Ir: which made the good man so angry that he exclaimed 'Sir I reject the whole bundle of your opinions'"

Mr Ir: was Edward Irving (DNB 1792-1834). Mr and Mrs Chance were neighbours of the Gillmans in Highgate, and appeared in Coleridge's letters from 1824 to 1827. Because in a letter of 1829 Coleridge mentioned a Mr E Chance, the editors of Coleridge's Letters and of his Notebooks assumed that this was the same person, but in fact Coleridge was using the normal convention of adding an initial to denote a different person with the same surname, in this case probably a younger brother. Robert Lucas Chance was born 8.10.1782, the oldest son to survive childhood of William Chance (1749-1828) factor of Birmingham, and his wife Sarah, daughter of Robert Lucas of Bristol (1705-1775) hooper, brewer and glass bottle manufacturer. On 7.5.1811 at Backwell, Somerset  he married his cousin Louisa, daughter of Edward Homer by Mary, also a daughter of Robert Lucas of Bristol (Burke's Family Records). R L Chance was a window-glass merchant of Paul's Wharf, 25 Upper Thames St in 1825, and Coleridge referred to his trade in one of his letters. The Chances lived at Highgate for a few years in the 1820s and then returned to Birmingham. Two of their children were registered at Dr Williams Library as born at Highgate with James Gillman accoucheur as one of the witnesses (Edward Homer born 14.1.1824 and buried at Bunhill Fields 20.9.1824 age 6 months from Highgate, and John Homer born 31.7.1827). Robert Lucas Chance had a younger brother Edward who was born in 1792 and died unmarried at Brighton on 4.11.1866. He was probably the Edward Chance whose petition for an enquiry into his invention making forgery of bank notes more difficult was presented to the House of Commons (Morning Post 15.4.1826), and the Edwrad Chance who by 1827 was in partnership as a publisher with Thomas Hurst at 65 St Pauls Churchyard. Thomas Hurst was also a neighbour of the Gillmans and it was in a letter to him in 1829 that Coleridge mentioned Mr E Chance. There was also a Miss Chance mentioned in Coleridge's letters in 1827 and 1830, who appeared to be staying with the Gillmans or intimate with them, and friends with their youngest son Henry (born 1804). The Miss Chance in the letter of 1830 was referred to as Mr Chance's sister. Robert Lucas Chance had three daughters, Sarah Louisa born in 1813, Mary Ann born in 1814, and Emily born in 1817, and (after June 1827) two unmarried sisters, Sarah (1800-1835) who married on 20.6.1832 Jonah Smith Wells (who also lived in Highgate), and Maria (1803-1881 unmarried). Robert Lucas Chance probably supplied much of the glass for the Crystal palace in the 1851 Geat Exhibition. He died on 7.3.1865 at Northfleet House near Gravesend, and his obituary in the Birmingham Daily Post of 9.3.1865 stated "In all that had relation to politics and religion Mr Chance was broadly Liberal, in the best sense of that word. Though not a member of the Church of England, he was entirely free from sectarian bitterness, and always spoke of the Church and of Churchmen with the greatest respect. As one of the founders and warmest supporters of the Edgbaston Proprietary School, he illustrated by his conduct his settled conviction that religious and secular education should be entirely separated". His personal estate was sworn at under £300,000. James Timmins Chance (DNB 1814-1902) was his nephew. His widow Louisa died 24.12.1873 at Summerfield House near Birmingham.