The eighteenth century three John Gidleys problem

There are three separate trees which begin with a John Gidley of approximately the same age - all born between 1758 and 1765.
The Bovey Tracey tree begins with John Gidley who married Elizabeth Purday in Bovey Tracey in 1789. John died in December 1842 aged 77, making him born about 1765.
The Brixham tree begins with John Gidley who married Hannah Earle in 1789 in Brixham and who was buried there in 1841 aged 83. He was therefore born about 1758.
The Marldon tree starts with John Gidley who married Mary Gale in 1792 in Kingsteignton. Marldon was at that time his place of residence. He died in 1818 in Marldon, aged 56, so was born about 1762.
So we have three different John Gidleys who have moved away from their place of birth. There is no possibility that any of them are the same person as all are producing children at approximately the same time in their separate locations.
I have four possibilities for them, and probably only DNA testing will be able to sort them for certain. There are two possible John Gidleys on the Winkleigh tree, who vanish after their baptisms. First cousins, they were very similar in age, one being christened in February 1760 and the other in March 1761. Then there are two John Gidleys, also first cousins, of approximately the right age on the Dean Prior tree who don't seem to have been buried there.
John Gidley number 1 of Winkleigh was the son of Richard and Mary Gidley. His cousin John Gidley number 2 was the son of John Gidley and his wife Mary. There is a possible link for number 2 with Brixham, as the parish apprenticed his brother Samuel in 1773 to John Ash of Brixham, for husbandry. The whole family was destitute, having been subject to a removal order from South Tawton to Spreyton that same year. This order mentions John and his wife and names three children, Samuel, Mary and Joanna all under 10. (Father John was possibly the same John Gidley of South Tawton committed to gaol for sheep stealing in 1763). So had their son John (number 2) died? Or had he already set off for pastures new? If he was still living at the time of the removal order in 1773, he may have been deemed independent at the age of 13 and capable of earning his own living.
However, there is a possible link with the Brixham family for John Gidley number 1 of Winkleigh. John & Hannah's children's names bear distinct similarities with those of Winkleigh families. The Brixham children were called Mary, Elizabeth, John, Ann, Hannah, and, most tellingly, Richard (given to two sons, so it was obviously important), Fanny and Samuel. There had been an earlier, probably unrelated family, of Gidleys in Brixham in the 17th and 18th centuries, which originated with Hercules/Archilaus Gidley of Churston Ferrers but this family seems to have died out with the deaths of Nicholas Gidley and Elizabeth Gidley in 1772 and 1792 respectively. However, both the earlier and the later families used the then rather unusual first name Allen: Allin Griffin Corde Gidley christened in 1766, and Allen Herbert Gidley just over a hundred years later. Was this a popular name in Brixham?
A correspondent a few years ago had employed a researcher who came to the definite conclusion that the John Gidley of Brixham was one of the Winkleigh family, although my correspondent could not pin her down on evidence, just that "it is all there in the Record Office". The year of birth derived from John's age at burial in Brixham is a couple of years out from 1760, when both John Gidleys of Winkleigh were christened, but I think that's a reasonable margin of error.
The Bovey Tracey John Gidley married Elizabeth Purday in 1789. The names of their children don't give many clues - George (twice), Mary, Elizabeth, John and possibly William who founded the Kenton Gidley family. There is, however, a second marriage in Bovey Tracey in 1798, nine years after John's, which could just possibly be significant.
The two John Gidleys of Dean Prior I shall call John number 3 and John number 4. John Gidley number 3 was the son of George Gidley and his wife Joan who died at John's birth – mother and child were buried and christened respectively on the same day. Father George then married again and had two more children, George and Dorothy, until he too died when John was only eight. One thing has been very evident as I drew up Gidley family trees: those who emigrated or who moved some distance away from their place of birth were very often those who were orphaned or who had step-parents and obviously felt they had less to keep them in their native locality. John number 3 fell into that category. And did his half brother George follow him to Bovey Tracey to marry there in 1798? This is pure speculation on my part, especially as John of Bovey Tracey's date of birth derived from his age at burial is 1765, some way out from John number 3's christening in 1758. His death, however, was officially registered by a non-family member, so may have been a guess.
John number 4, first cousin of number 3, was the son of Henry Gidley and his wife Lucy Collins. He was born in 1768, and his mother died when John was a teenager, his father also marrying again. His age would therefore fit the Bovey Tracey John Gidley better. There are no clues for the John Gidley of Marldon who married in 1792. His children were called Samuel, Mary, Jane and Tryphena. Samuel was a common name in the Winkleigh family and not in the Dean Prior family, but it may have come from his wife's side. This John was buried at the age of 56 in 1818, which would make his year of birth 1762, a fairly reasonable fit for three of the John Gidleys.
So you could mix and match any of the four John Gidleys to the three available trees and unless a descendant takes a DNA test, I don't think it can be unravelled. And of course there could be yet more John Gidleys whose baptisms weren't recorded and who I'm not even aware of.