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The name "Marrs" came to America with the emigrant William Erskine Marrs, who was the son of John Erskine, 23rd the Earl of Mar, the man who initiated the Jacobite Rising of 1715. After the Rising failed, William was sentenced to execution by being dragged through the streets of Edinburgh by a wild colt, likely because of relation to his father, although some say he was sentenced by the "leading religionist", possibly for heresy. The Hanoverians issued a Writ of Attainder, denying John Erskine and his heirs their right to the Earldom of Mar, and claiming the family's land as their own. So, William bribed a guard using a coin he had hidden in his boot, worked as a deckhand in the port of Bristol, England, and used his wages to pay his fare to the colonies. Because his family were the Earls of Mar, he was likely known as Mar, as the Earl himself is often referred to as. So, William changed the spelling from Mar or Marr to "Marrs", adding an "s" at the end of the name, presumably to avoid detection by Hanoverian forces in the colonies, emigrated under the name William Erksine Marrs, and settled near Chanceford, Pennsylvania. William married a woman named Pulsoholo Munday Folsom, and all of their children bore the surname "Marrs" rather than Erskine.