Robert Lucas Chance (8 October 1782 – 7 March 1865),
/ref> known as Lucas Chance, was an English glass merchant and manufacturer in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

. He founded the company which became

Chance Brothers Chance Brothers and Company was an English glassworks originally based in Spon Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands (county), West Midlands (formerly in Staffordshire), in England. It was a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassma ...

Family background

Lucas Chance was the fifth child and eldest son of William Chance (a partner in

Nailsea Glassworks Nailsea Glassworks was a glass manufacturing factory in Nailsea in the English county of Somerset. The remaining structures have been designated as a scheduled monument. The factory making bottle glass and some window glass opened in 1788 and cl ...

) and Sarah Lucas (daughter of John Robert Lucas).

Working life

Chance started work at his father's business in

at the age of 12, then started his own glass merchant business in London in 1815. This involved many trips to France where he formed alliances with French owners. In 1822 he purchased the British Crown Glass Company, following the death of the owner, Thomas Shutt, for £24,000 (). In 1828, after John Hartley's contract with the

had expired, Lucas enticed Hartley to work as a manager. It was expected that John Hartley would become a manager, but he died in 1833 before this was formalised. After experiencing financial difficulties in 1832, Lucas was then saved by his brother, William, who also became a partner, temporarily taking over the lease. The partnership with Hartley's sons, James and John Jnr, in 1834 was dissolved in 1836 due to many differences of opinion and the business was then named

& Company. During his time in London with his glass merchant business, he formed an acquaintance with Georges Bontemps, a leading director of a glassworks in France, who would later assist at Chance Brothers following his exile from France in 1848. Chance was instrumental in introducing the method of

sheet glass Plate glass, flat glass or sheet glass is a type of glass, initially produced in plane form, commonly used for windows, glass doors, transparent walls, and windscreens. For modern architectural and automotive applications, the flat glass is s ...

production for making flat glass for (primarily) windows. This would eventually supersede the previous working method of

crown glass Crown glass is either of two kinds of glass: *Crown glass (window) was a type of hand-blown window glass. *Crown glass (optics) is a type of optical glass used in lenses. {{Disambig ...

. He was also one of the great exponents of removing the crippling excise duty and the

Window Tax Window tax was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. It was a significant social, cultural, and architectural force in England, Scotland, France and Ireland during the 18th and 19th centuries. To avoid the tax, some houses fr ...

. Following these actions, the glass trade in England started to flourish. In 1851, Chance Brothers supplied the glass to glaze the

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

, which was probably partly due to Chance's previous links with

Joseph Paxton Sir Joseph Paxton (3 August 1803 – 8 June 1865) was an English gardener, architect, engineer and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Member of Parliament. He is best known for designing the Crystal Palace, which was built in Hyde Park, London, Hyde ...

, the architect, when supplying glass for the greenhouses at

Chatsworth House Chatsworth House is a stately home in the Derbyshire Dales, north-east of Bakewell and west of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield, England. The seat of the Duke of Devonshire, it has belonged to the House of Cavendish, Cavendish family si ...

. The two brothers were noted as being very philanthropic, founding a school (1845), a library and a church, all primarily for the workforce. Lucas Chance died in 1865, and was buried in

Key Hill Cemetery Key Hill Cemetery (British national grid reference system, OS grid reference SP059882), originally called Birmingham General Cemetery, is a cemetery in Hockley, West Midlands, Hockley (the Jewellery Quarter), Birmingham, England. It opened in ...

, Birmingham.

References

*Chance, J. F. (1919) ''A History of the Firm of Chance Brothers & Co., Glass and Alkali Manufacturers''. London: Printed for private circulation by Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co {{DEFAULTSORT:Chance, Robert Lucas 1782 births 1865 deaths Glass makers Burials at Key Hill Cemetery 19th-century English businesspeople Businesspeople from Birmingham, West Midlands