Nicholas Crisp arrived in Perquimans Precinct, North Carolina by 1692. In 1698 he served on a jury that acquitted Charles, an American Indian man, of theft. Crisp later served as a vestryman of St. Paul's Parish in Edenton. In 1720 a local cleryman named Paul Palmer convinced one of Crisp's enslaved people, a man named Sambo, to leave the Crisp plantation and come work at Palmer's plantation. When Crisp discovered Sambo's absence he brought kidnapping charges against Palmer and petitioned for Sambo's return. Sambo did eventually return to Crisp, but the charges against Palmer were dropped. Crisp died in Chowan Precinct in about March 1727.