Two possible marriages

[AsH62]

My 3x great grandfather Matthew Maynard 1803-1864 married Jane (Gray?). He was a farmer and they lived in Wass, Ampleforth, Oswaldkirk and around that area.
In my parent’s house is a sampler made by Susannah Gray aged 12 in 1819 making her DOB 1807. Ancestry has a baptism record for her on the 28th April 1807 (daughter of Stephen and Jane) so that all fits, we know that the sampler is in the house because it was made by a member of the family.

I believe that her sister Jane Gray (b. 1794 in Ampleforth) married Matthew Maynard and this is further proven by the 1851 census when Matthew and Jane had Stephen living with them and on the form his relationship is ‘father’.
So far so good but there are no marriage records for Matthew Maynard and Jane Gray but there is one for Matthew Maynard and Jane Atkinson. I can live with no documents for a Jane Gray marriage because the date is before registration but I can only find evidence of one Matthew Maynard in the area at that time which seems to indicate that Matthew married Jane Atkinson.
I come back to this one over and over, at the moment I believe Matthew married Jane Gray because of some sewing whereas the evidence points to Jane Atkinson.
Help please!
Alison

[avm228]

Perhaps Jane had had a previous marriage to a Mr Atkinson?  What is her prior marital status according to the marriage record?

[PaulineJ]

Were no kids of Matthew Maynard and Jane born after civil registration (Jane would be 30 by 1837) ?

what's the mother's maiden name on that, if there are any kid(s)?

[BumbleB]

From the marriage entry both Matthew and Jane (Atkinson) were single.  Matthew was a Farmer's Servant.

[AsH62]

Good thinking about a previous marriage for Jane, pity it didn’t fit!
Marriage and all children’s records are before registration. I did get Jane’s death certificate in case there was a useful witness (there wasn’t) and I am now trying to find gravestones for clues.
I haven’t been able to find any details of Matthew Maynard and Jane Atkinson after their marriage to prove that there were two couples which is the bit that is most worrying to my theory.
A couple of times a year I return to this one with no success so thought I would ask for a fresh eye on it, thank you for your help
Alison

[arthurk]

I haven't been able to track down a birth/baptism for Jane, so I was just wondering - could she have been born Jane Atkinson, then her father died and her mother married Stephen Gray, so he was actually her stepfather? Then perhaps she might sometimes have been known as Atkinson, and sometimes as Gray.

[AsH62]

Hi Arthur

That's good lateral thinking, I haven't tried going down this route but will have a look tomorrow.

The solution to this stuff always looks obvious once you find it but this one has had me stumped for over 8 years!

Thanks
Alison