Nicholas Porter Earp

Nicholas Porter Earp (September 6, 1813 – February 12, 1907) was the father of well-known Western lawmen Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan, and their lesser-known brothers James, Newton and Warren Earp. He was a justice of the peace, a farmer, cooper, constable, bootlegger, wagon-master, and teacher. Early family life and military service Nicholas Earp was born in Lincoln County, North Carolina, to Walter Earp and Martha Ann Early. The Earp family was of English and Scots-Irish descent. The first Earp immigrant to the American colonies was Thomas Earp Jr., who arrived in Anne Arundel County on July 6, 1674, as an indentured servant from Ireland. He is buried in St. Anne's Parish in Annapolis. Nicholas was named for a circuit-riding judge in Kentucky. Nicholas' father Walter Earp was born in Montgomery County, Maryland, in 1787, a fifth-generation Marylander who later became a school teacher, Justice of the Peace in Monmouth, Illinois and a Methodist Episcopal preacher. Nicholas' mother, Martha Ann Early, was born in Avery County, North Carolina, on August 28, 1790. Nicholas was the third of ten children; his siblings include six brothers: Lorenzo Dow, Josiah Jackson, James Kelly, Francis Asbury, Jonathan Douglas and Walter C (twins); as well as three sisters: Elizabeth, Mary Ann, and Sarah Ann. When Martha Earp died at age 91, she had eight living children, 85 grandchildren, 130 great-grandchildren and 13 great-great-grandchildren.