chance child, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

chance child n.

also come-by-chance child

1. an illegitimate child.

1753		A. Hill Works III 393: So, from injected thought, shoots passion’s growth / No sprout sponteaneous, no chance child of sloth.
1764		J. Marchant Eng. Dict. n.p.: BY-blow [S.] a bastard, or chance- child.
1787		Eur. Mag. and london Rev. XII 38/1: We question whether there are not many readers, who may be inclined to think they are presented with the history of (what the vulgar call) a chance child.
1793		E. Inchbald Everyone Has His Fault III:i: Lord N. ‘A young man!’ — Pshaw! — no; a boy — a mere child, who fell in my way by aecident. Har. A chance child ! Ho, ho! I understand you. Lord N. Do not jest with me, sir. Do I look— Har. Yes, you look as if you would be ashamed to own it, if you had one.
1801		Farther Excursions of the Observant Pedestrian 6: Lord, Sir, you must know Jenny was a chance child of a wealthy gentleman; whether she ever had a rich mother, God knows.
1828		H. Angelo ReminiscencesI 448: He was a chance child, thrown by fortune upon the precarious bounty of strangers.
1836		Morn. Post (London) 31 Mar. 4/3: Mr Chambers — Are your parents living? Boy (wiping his eyes) — Never had none. I vos vot they calls a chance child and brought up in Marrebone verkhouse.
1846		Sheffield Indep. 15 Aug. 5/4: The defendent traced the catalogue of wrongs of herself, her amiable daughter and chance-child.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 21/1: ‘Chance children,’ as they are called, or children unrecognised by any father, are rare.
1868		G.W. Harris ‘Chapter from his Autobigraphy’ Chattanooga Daily Amer. Union 31 Mar. in Inge (1967) 191: I dusent suckil cum by chance childer.
1876		Derbys. Times 3 May 3/2: Yonder little lassie [...] is no come-by-chance , no child of any dissipated gentleman and his light-o’-love.
1880		Preston Chron. 16 Oct. 2/6: Bastard and chancechild! Ah! well.
1888		S.O. Addy Sheffield Gloss. 39: Chance-child, an illegitimate child.
1896		G.F. Northall Warwickshire Word-Book 44: Chance-child. An illegitimate child.
1927		Cornishman 17 Nov. 4/2: A Cornish farmer [...] took his worry to an old sweetheart who he had jilted, leaving her to rear their come-by-chance child.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 242/1: from ca. 1760.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1984		R. Wilder You All Spoken Here 98: Come-by-chance child: Illegitimate; woods colt; bush colt; catch colt; old field colt; outsider; volunteer; yard child; bantlin’.

2. in fig. use of sense 1.

1804

Morn. Post (London) 8 Nov. 2/2: The pamphlet [...] has been adopted from its birth as a favourite chance-child [...] rocked, from the arms of the midwife, in the cradle of newspaper patronage.