Sources & Information:
Ancestry.com > Massachusetts Marriages, 1633-1850. John Elles [note spelling of name not as commonenly known as Ellis], Male, spouse Johanna Swift, marrage date as 17 Set 1737 [Also note difference in date as presently known as 28 Oct 1737], City of Harwich, Barnstable County, Massachusetts. Source from Harwich town records, Harwich, MA.
RootsWeb’s WorldConnect Project: Lt. John Ellis of Sandwich indicates this John Ellis only as b. 1711.
John Ellis and Joanna Swift married by Joseph Doane, Justice of the Peace presiding, Harwich, MA. John Ellis appears on the list of Harwich men who petitioned, 16 Jan 1746, that the southern part of Harwich be made a separate precinct. Children are from Harwich Church Records.
Reference Sources:
The NEHGS Register, April 1966, Mpg. 104-105 and January 1967 Mpg. 42-43.
Mayflower Descent, Vol. 23, pg. 59.
Family Group Record, Vol. 157, 1680, LDS.
Family Group Record, Vol. 157, 1711, LDS.
IGI pg. 12061 regarding marriage date Johanna Swift.
Col. Harry H. Ellis, USA, Dallas, TX. (Deceased).
Harwich, Massachusetts, Vital Records.
Harwich, Massachusetts, Church Records.
Ellis Family Genealogy Collection by CWO Edward D. Ellis, USMCR, Royal Oak, Mi.
Linked Family Tree, Plymouth & Cape Cod Massachusetts Genealogy.
This by Harry C Hadaway, Jr., Bow, N.H. <hhadaway@mail.tds.net> and <http://www.gendex.com/users/hhadaway/harry/fam03865.htm>.
A Narrative - Provincetown, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, <http://ww.state.ma.us/dhcd/iprofile/242.htm.>

PROVINCETOWN, Barnstable County, Massachusetts. During a visit to Cape Cod, Provincetown and Truro, MA., by Kathleen and Edward D. Ellis, from May 13 to 15, 1980, we stopped at the Town Clerk's office’s of Paul Noonan and Tom Kane. In talking to these gentleman some interesting aspects were explained. It seems that the early history of Provincetown may not have been complete, due to its nature and because of those involved not wanting to be mentioned or associated with the circumstances. It seems that in the approximate period 1760 to 1780 there is some unwritten history regarding early settlers being problem persons, malcontents, unchurched and misfits.
Also in 1776 the town was called upon to furnish goods for the Continental Army, however at this time not many people in Provincetown were members of the Revolutionary Societies. During the Revolutionary War, five hundred English ships were captured by Yankee privateers, thus it is easy to see why few Provincetown names appear on the records.
At Truro the information was much the same, as stated above, except that there was also an involvement in Whaling and Cod fishing. We again run into the question of Privateering plus piracy as a means of livelihood.

An assumption: John Ellis arrived in Provincetown sometime after 1 June 1755 and prior to 24 October 1765. Following the reported lost at sea of John Ellis and 7 of his sons, the wife, Joannah took children, Thankful, Dolly, and Seth to Ware, MA. We know that they were in Hardwick, MA., near Ware on 28 May 1777 as Thankful married Judah Simonds on that day in Hardwick. This being the earliest and latest the family would have been in Provincetown, MA., from 1755 to 1777. This fits into the period 1760 to 1780 when Whaling and Privateering was in full swing and may account for the loss of John Ellis and 7 sons at sea. (See reference to letter below.) The records have not been kind as to finding the names of the other sons lost at sea. John Ellis age 65 in 1776 and Joanna Swift Ellis age 53 in 1776.

The original document mentioned above was given to me by my grandmother Emma Newell [Gould] Ellis and is as follows:

OUR ANCESTORS
“My great-grandfather was John Ellis of Provincetown, Ma. He was the father of ten children, eight boys and two girls. His youngest boy was my grandfather and was named Seth; the others, seven in number he never saw after he was seven years old as he went to sea with his father; he followed the seas for fourteen years. I never knew the names of the other seven. The girls names were Thankful and Dolly. I am the son of John Ellis, Grandson of Seth Ellis, Great-grand-son of John Ellis the first [meaning John husband of Joanna Swift]. My father was born July 11, 1789 and I am in my eightieth year.”
/s/ Abiathar P. Ellis

In the OUR ANCESTORS, by Abiathar P. Ellis, the name of Dolly Ellis shows, whereas, in the Brownson and McLean study, the name of Dorothy Ellis is shown. It is my contention that Dolly and Dorothy are one and the same.
In Abiathar’s genealogical statement regarding John Ellis and Joanna Swift’s family, he states there were 10 children which included 8 boys and two girls. I am perhaps a bit quisical as to the numbers and further wonder if Abiathar is not getting other branches of the family mixed up. Abiathar was in his 80th year when composing this information which could have been part of his or this mix up. Then here I am in my 91st year and questioning his determination. The closest possible scenario to John and Joanna’s family is son Seth and wife Elizabeth Gilmore who had 10 children but only 6 boys and 4 girls and these sons were not all lost at sea. /s/ EDE

In January, 1967 issue of the NEHGR, occurs the connection by Brownson and McLean, Involving John Ellis (John, Manoah, Lt. John Ellis) who was born 1711. He married in Harwich, MA, 28 October 1737 [intention 17 Sept 1737], By Joseph Doane, J. P., JOHANNAH SWIFT, of Harwich. The known children of this marriage and baptisms from Harwich Churh Records, are listed as follows:
1. John, b. abt 1738, bapt. 7 Sept 1746.
2. Dorothy, b. abt 1740, bapt. 7 Sept 1746 [Perhaps the Dorothy Ellis of Provincetown who married 24 Oct 1765 Jabez Gross of Wellfleet, from Vital Records of Truro.
3. Seth, b. perhaps about 1744, bapt. 28 Oct 1753.
4. Thankful, b. abt 1754, bapt. 1 June 1755.
5. There is no note as to further family members given.

The town of Provincetown was incorporated in 1727, but its history begins much earlier since the well protected harbor offered excellent protection from storms. The European Explorer Gosnold recorded a stop in Provincetown as early as 1602 and the harbor was the site of the first landing of the Mayflower. The Pilgrims signed the Mayflower compact in the harbor, to codify the way in which they were going to administer the new colony they intended to establish. Although rich fishing Grounds resulted in the seasonal leasing of fisheries with licenses granted for bass, mackerel and cod fishing, the first permanent settlement didn't take place until 1700. Provincetown grew very slowly during the 18th century and its population fluctuated with the price of fish. Farming was of secondary importance and aside from the fishing industry, there were only some salt works and one mill. After the Revolution, the town boomed and its population rose 276.6 % between 1790 and 1830. Despite its relative lack of good farm land, by the middle of the 19th century, Provincetown had developed as the prime maritime, fishing and commercial center of the Cape. The Civil War, which destroyed so much New England business, only provided more markets for Provincetown's fish. Portuguese sailors, picked up by American ships in the Azores and Cape Verde Islands to fill out their crews, came to Provincetown to live and additional Portuguese immigrants had moved to town by the 19th century to work on the whaling boats and coastal fishing vessels. In 1875, there were 25 coastwise and 36 ocean vessels Operating in town, more than any community in the state including Boston. Provincetown was a bustling place with all of the ancillary maritime businesses operating, such as ship chandlers, shipwrights, sail makers, caulkers, riggers and blacksmiths.

MASSACHUSETTS PRIVATEERS OF THE REVOLUTION.
From: A Heritage Classic by Gardner Weld Allen

Having served their apprenticeship in the trade of privateering in the various wars of the colonial period, American ship owners and mariners at the outbreak of the Revolution naturally turned to this method of harassing their enemy and profiting by the operation. Two thousand different vessels, and very many were commissioned more than once; some, several times. All classes of vessels were engaged in privateering: ships, brigs, schooners, sloops, and boats. Whaleboats, sometimes with crews of twenty-four, were employed in Nantucket and Vineyard Sounds, but more commonly in waters south of New England.Counties of Plymouth, Barnstable, Bristol, Nantucket, or Dukes County. It would be interesting to know how many privateersman sailed the seas without commissions.
Prizes held at Barnstable or Dartmouth for the Southern District; at Boston, Salem, or Newburyport for the Middle District; and at Falmouth (Portland) or Pownalborough (Wiscasset) for the Eastern District. For a study of Massachusetts privateering a mass of material is still accessible to the searcher, though undoubtedly much has been lost. In 1906 the Library of Congress published a calendar of Naval Records of the American Revolution prepared by Charles Henry Lincoln. In the Massachusetts Archives at the State House in Boston there is a collection of bonds representing many Massachusetts privateer commissions as those in the Library of Congress. The first bonds of the Revolutionary period in the Archives, about seventy in number, were given by whalers during the summer and fall of 1775 and had to do with deposition of their cargoes of oil and whalebone. Many privateers were captured and prizes recaptured, and thousands of American seamen languished on board the Jersey and other British prison ships and at Mill and Forton prisons in England. Anything remotely approaching accuracy in estimating the number of Massachusetts privateers taken by the enemy would be still less attainable than in the case of captures from the British. Exchanges of prisoners from Jamaica, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and other places, sometimes with three or four hundred exchanged prisoners, were reported from time to time in the newspapers.

The life span of Seth Ellis covering 1 March 1754 to 1 November 1842 would have experienced the war of independence that lasted 7 years from 1776 to 1783. Britain temporarily lost control of the seas in the 1780's and this followed renewed hostilities in the 1790's between Britain and France. The colonies were angered when Britain claimed the right to seize British born seamen from American ships to impress them into the Royal Navy. In June 1812 Congress declared war on Britain yet there were those New England states, which opposed the war, and threatened to secede from the union. The above two paragraphs is from: An Ocean Apart, 1988 by David Dimbleby and David Raynolds. This creates, possibilities for some of the seven sons of John Ellis and Joanna Swift reported as lost at sea. Were they captured or did they ship over to the British Navy? We can continue to build mystery in this case as long as possibilities remain! The War of Independence during the period 1776 to 1783. In establishing a direct link to the Lt. John Ellis and Elizabeth (Freeman) Ellis of Sandwich, Massachusetts, reference is made to The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, a quarterly publication, that carried a research study completed by Lydia B. (Phinney) Brownson, of Duxbury, Massachusetts and Maclean W. McLean of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This study beginning in the July, 1965 issue on page 161 and continuing through the October 1968 edition. According to Brownson and McLean, this early family of Sandwich, Massachusetts presented a wider variety of difficulties, from a genealogical point of view.

INDIVIDUAL RECORD --- Birth, parents, marriage, notes and submitter. Harry Hadaway, 10 Timmins Road, Bow, N.H. 03304.
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/PRF/iondivi...f.asp?recid=70705336

Mr. Harry C. Hadaway, Jr. letter received 9 June 2001, sent copy of data base concerning this branch of the family hoping he might shed some light upon it. See letter on file.

See Correspondence with Mr. J. F. Jenney, Marine Historian, P.O. Box 144, Saunderstown, RI 02874, dated Aug 3, 1984, a follow up regarding ships lost at sea, during period in question and regarding John Ellis and sons. The following is a quote from his letter of January 8, 1986. See further letters under Ship Wrecks.

" I have come up with only one possibility for you to follow and, in truth, I cannot give you a strong reliability that this might lead you to your family - In 1767 there was a wreck near Race Point called the BETSEY. I know little more about her yet except that she a full-rigged ship. There may be a connection or maybe not but it is a lead. I suspect that if your ancestor was involved in the fishing industry and sailed out of Provincetown that most likely he either was a "day fisherman" or a "banks fisherman". A tremendous number of fishing vessels over the years have been lost in the waters of George's Bank and the Grand Banks but most are never definitely identified but rather appear as statistical "counts" of vessels lost from the port during a given year. I hope that I have given you a little more insight into the possibilities and difficulties that I face with the data bank."