Hello Sue
Yes, Joseph Laskey was a showman and he and Robert Hales joined up with Laskey as some sort of manager. They were at a Norfolk fair when the Hales family came to see Robert, Joseph (who I think must have been a cad) took one look at Mary and the dollar signs hit his eyes. He married her and off the 3 went untill the two men brought her back to be buried. It is then he spies the younger sister and marries her (against church law) and off they go but Robert breaks with Laskey at this point. Then Robert gets the P T Barnum offer and off he goes. PT knew that Laskey had made a very fair return on the brother and sister giants and had hoped that Robert had another one. The story then gets a bit confused as PT arranged a marriage for Robert to a Quaker giantess and this couple pulled in the money. When he returned home Robert said that the giantess was in fact a big man (even though a marriage did take place) that PT found.
Robert then married and on 1861 census in Sheffield, besides him and Maria there is a boy, given relationship, son, named General Hales (after general Tom Thumb who Robert showed with). His age would have had being born before Robert and Maria married. I cannot find a birth that fits and I do not think Maria had him out of wedlock. My thoughts are that it was just a pot boy who worked in the inn and Robert was having a joke, or the lad came back from USA with Robert and was a product of the marriage, which may not have been the sham Robert said it was.
Regards