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Well, Sittingbourne is an appropriate location for Trees. But I can't help directly with that one. 

There is no apparent link to my tree.

Checking back through the IGI shows a marriage in Borden for Thomas and Mary Ann White in 1836. Found in 1841 as Thomas Craydon 32 and Mary Ann 23, in Newington, with 5 year old Ann Maria, and they show up nicely in 1851 and 1861, along with Eliza Joan in 1861.

The most common reason for a middle or third name is (a) maiden name of mother or grandmother of husband or wife and (b) godparent.

The Craydens were an established Kent family, it seems - so perhaps one should be looking at who Mary Ann White was? Even so, you'd need to track them both back another generation or two to discover who their parents and grandparents were.

Thomas b about 1809 and Mary Ann b about 1818.

My Thomas Tree Snr had a first daughter named Ann Maria, b Headcorn 1804 - same name as Thomas and Mary Ann's first daughter.

And interestingly, in 1861 a widowed Mary Ann White aged 46 (so b about 1815)  is living in Sittingbourne, born Lynsted, with three children.

So yes - probably a link somewhere between Lynsted and the Whites. It just needs teasing out....

Hi, Casalguidi - how kind of you to ask.

As it happens, yes I did make a great deal of progress, having gained access to the Lynsted parish records.  (I helped to transcribe them, and thus earned a full set on CD!)

From information found in the records, I made a few suppositions, and eventually via info from many difererent sources, traced Thomas Snr back to Headcorn, found a nearby marriage for him to a wife who explained some previously inexplicable Allsworth lodgers in the family home in 1841, 1851 and 1861, and linked him probably (not proven) to several generations of his forbears.

The records also let me prove to my own satisfaction that John Tree  b1801 was the illegitimate son of Thomas Snr and Rhoda Stears, and was born in Headcorn. He himself was variably known as John Stears and two of his children were baptised in Lynsted as Stears, though others were baptised as Tree. I was then able to link him to many generations of his Tree/Steerstree/Stearstree descendants elsewhere in Kent, and have made contact with modern Steerstrees.

I won't bore you with more details, unless the Trees somehow link to your own roots, but it was a very satisfying journey of discovery!   

Thanks for asking - best regards
Wendy

OK, now that I have reseated myself on my chair after falling off it laughing out loud.....

A quick search on the FamilySearch site (am I the only one that HATES this new interface?) says:

"No records found for >Name: wright, Event: Any, Place: marston moretaine, Event Range: 1790-1810"

Opening up the search to Bedfordshire doesn't help either.

I never was able to progress further with this branch, Amy.

But as David says, we do know from JohnP's sight of the original record that Wright was not Mary Walker's maiden name.

I believe it's quite probable that the 72 year old in MM in 1851 is the correct Mary - she seems to be living in an enclave of lacemakers In Sheldon, which was a common female occupation among the poor. Her son James (Ag Lab) and wife Susana (lacemaker) are two or three pages back in the same location with their family.

It seemed strange for her to be living alone as a pauper, when ten years earlier she had literally been in the bosom of her family. But by 1851 daughter Martha had died, Edward and Susan had moved to Kent, Charlotte and Edward Chandler were in Wroxhill with a lorryload of kids and Edward's mother Jemima, and perhaps couldn't manage to care for both mothers, and her son James was still nearby, but also had five children....

If this IS the correct Mary, she was about 20 when she married John Walker, which doesn't give much space for a marriage to Mr Wright, and as no children appear to have come to the Walker marriage with her, the Wright marriage was pretty short-lived.

So the search is for any Mary born in/around Marston Moretaine c1788 - who may have married a Mr Wright between about 1803-1808, and a Mr Wright who died during a similar timespan.

Needle in a haystack....  :-(