To add to his credibility he had also made his cousin Johannes Lauritsson, of the noble Galte family, join him.
Johannes Lauritsson (c. 1540 – c. 1620) was a wealthy Norwegian landowner of the prominent, and at least later, noble Galte-family.
The Benkestok family was married into the Norwegian noble families Smør, Galte (later: Galtung) and Kane, which were the original Norwegian noble families.