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.

During the Mexican–American War Nicholas served under Captain Wyatt Berry Stapp of the Illinois Mounted Volunteers.

[5] Nicholas originally intended to become a lawyer like his father, before moving his law practice and his family from North Carolina to Kentucky, where he took up farming.

[8] They had eight children: In March 1849,[12] Nicholas Earp joined about one hundred others from Monmouth County, Illinois, for a trip to California, where he planned to look for good farm land, not gold.

[13] Nicholas returned to Illinois and the family left for California but their daughter Martha, became ill and died.

[14] Eight years later, on March 4, 1856, Nicholas sold his Pella, Iowa, farm to Aquillin Waters Noe (who resold it on the same day to Hiram Zenas Webster) and the family returned to Monmouth, Illinois, where Nicholas found that nobody needed his services as cooper or farmer.

Nicholas was unable to pay the court-imposed fines following his trial, and a lien was levied against the Earp's property.

Nicholas apparently made frequent travels to Monmouth throughout 1860 to confirm and conclude the sale of his properties and to face several lawsuits for debt and accusations of tax evasion.

During the Civil War, Nicholas served in Pella, Iowa, as a United States Provost Marshal for recruitment.

While his father was busy recruiting and drilling local companies, Wyatt, along with his two younger brothers, Morgan and Warren, were left in charge of tending the 80-acre (32 ha) corn crop.

[17] According to the diaries of Utah emigrants in the wagon train, Nicholas was an irascible and difficult man to deal with.

Sarah Jane Rousseau wrote in her diary during the seven-month trek that Nicholas Earp did not take well to backtalk: "It made him awful mad and he was for killing.

"[17] On November 24, she wrote: This evening Mr. Earp had another rippet [sic] with his son Warren [for] fighting [with] Jimmy Hatten.

He is such an uncouth and foul-mouthed person I think we made a terrible mistake engaging him and furnishing him horses and provisions to lead this wagon train west.

Not long after, their brothers Jim and Morgan left the family in San Bernardino and headed for the mining towns of Montana.

[18] In spring 1868, Nick, Ginnie, Morgan, Warren, and Adelia returned to the Midwest and Lamar, Missouri, where Nicholas became the local constable.

[20] Both Wyatt and Morgan traveled from Peoria, Illinois, to home in Lamar, Missouri, to celebrate Adelia's eleventh birthday on June 16, 1872.

[21] Some time prior to 1880, Nicholas and Virginia Earp moved back to California, settling in San Bernardino County.

The 1880 United States Census shows the Nicholas Earp household included Warren and Morgan and his wife Louisa ("Lou").

Morgan arrived in Tombstone, Arizona After Virginia's death on January 14, 1893, in San Bernardino, 80-year-old Nicholas married Annie Elizabeth Cadd on October 14 of the same year.

[citation needed] Nicholas Earp died at The Soldier's Home in Sawtelle, California, on February 12, 1907, shortly after he was elected to the Los Angeles County court.

On December 1, 1879, he and Nellie joined his brothers Wyatt and Virgil and their wives in Tombstone in the Arizona Territory.

Virgil eloped at age sixteen with 16-year-old Dutch immigrant Magdalena C. "Ellen" Rysdam (born November 25, 1842, in Utrecht, Netherlands – died May 3, 1910, in Cornelius, Oregon).

They remained together for a year in spite of her parents' (Gerrit Rysdam and Magdalena Catrina Van Velzen) disapproval of her choice.

Their daughter Nellie was born two weeks before Virgil enlisted to serve with the Union forces in the Civil War.

[27]: 114 [28] While holding these two offices Virgil, his brothers Wyatt and Morgan, and Doc Holliday confronted the Cowboys in a narrow lot on Fremont Street.

On December 28, 1881, three men hidden in the upper story of an unfinished building across Allen street from the hotel ambushed Virgil from behind as he walked from the Oriental Saloon to his room.

[38] Morgan Seth Earp joined his brothers Virgil and Wyatt in Tombstone, Arizona Territory on December 1, 1879.

Late Saturday night, March 18, 1882, Morgan was ambushed and killed after returning from a musical at Schieffelin Hall.