On 5 September 1896, at Cambridge St Andrew The Less, banns were finally called for Charles HAMSON of Kettering and Eliza Rosa COWELL of that parish. No marriage followed.

Was this our Charles? He was an engine cleaner in 1891 but by 1897 he was a fireman for the Midland Railway and was admitted as a member of the Associated Society of Railway Servants, Kettering Branch. The Midland Railway had built a line from Kettering to Huntingdon which opened in 1866 and services ran to Cambridge via the Huntingdon to St Ives line. It is entirely feasible that Charles was working on this line in 1896 and met Rosa while taking a break in Cambridge. No other Charles HAMSON at Kettering at the time.

On 23 April 1897 (according to the birth certificate - 13 April according to the 1939 Register) Rosa gave birth to Dorothy Eugenie Hamson, no father recorded, at her parent's house 62 York Street, Cambridge. When the banns were read Rosa must have been 5 or 6 weeks pregnant so she had good reason to hope that they would be married. Dorothy's full name suggests that Rosa believed Charles to be the father or at the least wanted Charles to believe that he was the father so it is unlikely that Rosa jilted Charles.

Perhaps Charles didn't believe that he was the father of Rosa's child. Or maybe he became unnerved by Rosa's history. She had been born at Newmarket around 1865 and married Robert ELLINGHAM, an Ely beer retailer, in 1889. By 1892 her husband had died as had two of their three children. She married again in mid-1893 to Daniel COWELL at Cambridge and had twins, Albert and Maud, in mid-1894. Tragically her husband died around the time of their birth and Albert died later that year. Not an encouraging track record! Throughout this episode was Charles courting Alice EVANS, whom he married at Kettering in August 1897? Their first born, Albert Edward, was born 5 February 1898, presumably having been conceived very soon after the birth of Rosa's daughter.

In 1901 Rosa was working as a chambermaid in the Lion Hotel, Petty Cury, Cambridge. Her parents, William KENT and Jane lived at 62 York Street, a 20 minute walk away, looking after her three surviving children: Beatrice ELLINGHAM, Maud COWELL and Dorothy now called Kate COWELL. In 1911 Rosa was married to James MASON a septuagenarian who lived at Huntingdon and thirteen year old Kate was living with them. James died aged 75 around May 1916. Rosa seemed not to have married again and died aged 61 at Cambridge in 1926.

Dorothy aka Kate, married John LEACH at Cambridge in 1919 and had three children: Gordon E in 1920, Christina R in 1924 who died the same year and Dorothy J in 1925, births all registered Cambridge. In 1939 she was living at 62 York Street with Gordon and Dorothy.