Sources & information:
RootsWeb’s WorldConnect Project: Lt. John Ellis of Sandwich indicates the following, “ELLIS, John b: ABT 1620 in Pulborough Co., Essex, ENG d: BEF 23 MAR 1677 in Sandwich, barnstable Co., MA.

See previous notes under John Ellis, Sr. Data noted but not proven: Lt. John Ellis b. abt 1620 likely in Leyden, Holland.

John Ellis came to America with his uncle Richard Masterson in 1629. The ship being reported as the Mayflower but not the original sailing of the Puritans that first landed at Provincetown, then finally at Plymouth, MA., in 1620. He was on a list of those between 16 and 60 able to bear arms in Sandwich 1643.

John Ellis and Elizabeth Freeman were charged with fornication before marriage. John Ellis of Sandwich...and his now wife...is censured to be with at public post and Elizabeth his wife to stand by whilst execution of the sentence is performed; which was accordingly done. And the said John Ellis for his long and tedious delays occasioning much trouble.

John Ellis was on a committe to lay out a road from Sandwich to Plymouth 24 February 1652, and was made a lieutenant on January 1653. On 1 March 1654, John Ellis agreed to build a mill with William Swift, William Allen and James Skeff. He was allowed by the Court in Sandwich to maintain an Inn and liquor store but the purchasers are not to drink on site.

On 18 June 1660, Lieutenant Ellis was instructed to deliver powder to the musqueteers. He built a town dock in 1662-1665. He was chosen with others as 'raters' for Sandwich 13 July 1671. Given 20 acres of land on 26 August 1674, 'beginning at his cow yard at the Western side of his fence going down to the beach.' to be layed out by Job Bourn and Thomas Tupper. Chosen with others to lay out new land for Ebenezer Nye. John Ellis was ordered by the town meeting on 28 February 1675 to make provision for a garrison at Town Neck for people during King Philip's War. He may have perished with his son John Ellis by a previous marriage and Thomas Tobey in Feb 1676/1676 in conflict with the Indians. His wife Elizabeth (Freeman) Ellis received a grant of land made to veterans of King Phillip's War. His inventory included clothes, beds, brass kettles, pots and pans, a rapier and belt and gun powder, bullets, tubs, barrels, pails, books, 4 cows, calves, bull, another lost bull (in the woods), a horse, 10 sheep with lambs, 5 hogs with piglets, chairs, iron pieces. 18 bushels of corn, iron moldsfor lead. In addition his son John also left a saddle, pistols, another horse with colt, lost horses, 2 augers, saw, and small tools, a boat, an old skif, and 1 1/2 yard of red cotton.

From Page 34, Ellis Cousins Newsletter, Spring 1990:
"Question: Was there one John Ellis, or two at the beginning of the Sandwich, Massachusetts family line? Answer: Nope! There were three!"

ECN super sleuths Eric J. Ellis, Rt. 1, Box 2330, Kents Hillm ME 94349, and Col. Harry H. Ellis (deceased)) of 15602 Ranchita Rd., Dallas, TX 75248, have just submitted some recently discovered sources which reveal the most probable clue found thus far regarding theorigins of this family.

Eric Ellis discovered the data in a book entitled "A brief Genealogical and Biographical Record of Charles Roscoe Howland, Brothers and and Forbears" published by the Tuttle Publishing Co., Rutland, VT.

Briefly the facts as shown in the Ellis chapter from the Howland book are as follows: John Ellis b. in England ca 1569 was opposed to the Established Church, joined the "Separatists" movement (later called Pilgrims), left England and went to Holland where he was a member of Rev. John Robinson's Church at Leyden. There, in 1619, he was witness to the marriage of his brother-in-law Richard Masterson, brother of John Ellis' wife Blandina Masterson, whom he had married pre-Easter 1606. John Ellis returned to England from Leydon sometime after that. His son, John Jr., then a child of 9 years, came to America on the Mayflower in 1629 under the care of his uncle, Richard Masterson. The uncle died in an epidemic in 1633 and John was apprenticed to someone else until he reached the age of 21 and took the oath of a freeman in 1641 in Boston. (For identification, we will now refer to him as Lt. John.) He settled in Sandwich, Mass., named after his father's own hometown in England. He married pre-20 August 1644 to Elizabeth Freeman, d/o Edumnd.Lt. John Ellis (b ca 1620) and Elizabeth Freeman did have a son John (another John Jr.) b ca 1646, who never married and d intestate (without a will) at Sandwich in 1667. His mother Elizabaeth Ellis, widow of Lt. John, administered the estate of her husband and her son in Court at Plymouth 5 June 1677. It would appear that both the father and the son had died at about the same time, either in an accident on land or sea, or in an epidemic of some sort. Earlier in the article there is rather vague mention of the fact that John Ellis (b 1569) of England had been married twice with a child by each marriage, Mary and Christopher. We presume this means he was married to Blandina Masterson in 1606. This seems plausible, as he was age 37 at the time of his 1606 marriage. This appears to be the best "find" so far on the origins of the Sandwich, Massachusetts Ellis Family.

References:
1. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Series beginning July, 1965.
2. The Family of Lt. John and Elizabeth (Freeman) Ellis of Sandwich, MA., compiled by Col.Harry H. Ellis, (Deceased) U. S. Army, Retired, Dallas, Tx.
3. The Ellis Family History, Lieut. John 1 Ellis of Sandwich, MA., Seth 5 Ellis of Provincetown and Ware, MA. and their descendents plus related families 1618 to 1983. Material by Edward D. Ellis, 2016 N. Vermont, Royal Oak, MI. 48073-4257.
4. Michael A. Shoemaker, < http://www.pacwest.net/bigshoe/index.ht
<http://www.parsonstech.com/genealogy/trees/rturner/d1698.htm >.
5. Charles Roscoe Howland, Brothers and Forbears, by Tuttle Publishing Co., Rutland, VT.
6. Pedigree Chart, Family Search @ Ancestral Files.
http://www.familysearch.org/Search/af/pedigree_chart.asp?recid=7010388. (It is interesting but more confusion via different contributors).
7. Soldiers in King Philips War, by George Madison Bodge, A.B. See Appendix, Plymouth Colony, beginning on page 455. Page 456 includes list of Lieutenants and that of John Ellis, Sandwich, 1653.
8. A Genealogical Dictionary of The First Settlers of New Englang, by James Savage, Vol. II,
Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing co., Inc., Pg. 113.
9. Pioneers of Massachusetts, by Charles Henry Pope, published by Genealogical Publishing Co.,
Inc. 1981. Page 155. "John, Sandwich, atba. 1643. Lieut. He m. Elizabeth, [dau. of Edmund
Freeman;] in Court June 4, 1645. Ch. (parent not given) Bennett B. 27 Feb. 1648, Mordical
(of John) b. March 24, 1650, Joel b. March 20, 1654, Matthias b. June 2, 1657." "Inv. of his est. taken 23 May, 1677, pres. by his widow Elizabeth."
10. RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: Global Search.VariousReferences:
<http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.co...bplace...p;dskip=&dplace=.>
11. Vital Records of Sandwich, Massachusetts to 1885, Volume 1, 2, & 3, Compiled by Caroline Lewis Kardell and Russell A. Lovell, Jr., New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, 1996.
12.Descendants of Freeman Ellis of Hartford, Maine, <http://www.my-ged.com/fellis/> of 11/26/98. "The family of Lt. John Ellis and Elizabeth Freeman of Sandwich, MA has been documented extensively by the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (Volumes 119-122). Freeman Ellis (Joel, Capt. Joel, Lt. Matthias, Lt. John), born in Plympton, MA in 1745, a Revolutionary War "Minuteman," removed to Hartford, ME in 1792. Since I moved to Oxford County, Maine in 1976, I have tried to construct a family history of Freeman Ellis and Sarah Bradford. I have visited the grave of Freeman Ellis in Hartford, ME, and the grave of Sarah Bradford in Carthage, ME. This GEDCOM is the beginnings of their family history. Much of this family history was published by Caleb Holt Ellis in 1900 in a book called "The Bradfords, Fullers and Ellises." That book was very helpful, but it contains errors. I am in the process of going back to original sources."

Lt. John Ellis, Barnstable, Ma. [Yahoo/Search] as of 18 June 2005.