Benkestok

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The Benkestok family (also known as Benkestokk, Benchestoch and similar spellings of the name) is one of the original noble families of Norway and one of the few to survive the Middle Ages. At the height of its power, the family ruled large estates in Bohuslän (now a part of Sweden), in Western Norway, in Northern Norway, and in the Faroe Islands.

The earliest known person in the family is Tord Benkestok from Strand, Bohuslän. He was mentioned by the Bishop of Oslo, Øystein Aslaksson, in the Church Property Register from the end of the 14th century. Strand is in Forshelle (now Forshälla) parish, 11 km south west of Uddevalla in what used to be the Norwegian county of Båhuslen (Bahusia). The estate is by the Svanesundet sound (Svanehals, now Havstens fjord, Brunnefjälls kile and Halsefjorden in Swedish) between the mainland and the island of Orust.

The Benkestok family also lived in Ryfylke, Norway, where Talgøy in Sjørnarøyane and Haraldseid at Skjold were the family seats, as well as in Sogn, where Jordanger was the manor. Later members of the family moved north to Melø Gård in Meløy, Nordland, which marked the beginning of the expansion of the family's numerous descendants throughout the Northern parts of Norway.

Jon Tordsson Benkestok was the first family member to move to Norway's largest and most important city at the time, Bergen, Norway. In a document from 1435 he was called Jon Þordasson Benkiastok when he served as a Judge of the Peace in Bergen.

Trond Tordsson Benkestok of Talgø was mentioned as he attented the Norwegian Privy Council in 1444. On 4 December he took part in a Privy Council meeting in Copenhagen, then capital of Denmark-Norway, where a ruling by King Christoffer on the right of Hanseatic merchants in Norway was confirmed. At the meeting, only 12 council members were present; 5 Lords of the Church and 7 Lords of the Realm, of which Trond Benkestok was number 6 and was described as a knight. Trond, then in his late 20s, probably represented the Lord of Bahusia, who was not present at the meeting. In 1472 he was still a knight and was mentioned as a Judge of the Peace at a Trondheim court session concerning an inheritance.

In July 1532, King Christian II was arrested and imprisoned in Copenhagen. Trond Torleivsson Benkestok actively supported Johan Kruckow, who wanted Frederik I on the Danish-Norwegian throne. Trond was later described as a knight. Claus Bille describes him as the «most respected and wise nobleman North of the mountains». Trond was probably a supporter of Roman Catholicism until the last Catholic archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson fled Norway in 1537.

Trond's eldest son, John Trondson Benkestok (1530 - cirka 1593), was a signatory when King Christian IV was hailed by the Norwegian nobility at Akershus Castle i 1591. He signed the document with the family's signet ring.

The Benkestok family was married into the families Smør, Galte (later: Galtung) and Kane, that were the original Norwegian noble families. The ancestral father was Gaut at Ænes in Hardanger, born cirka 1100. He was a lendmann (baron) and his son Jon Gautsson var a lendmann in the service of Magnus Erlingsson. The Benkestok family is the 8th generation descending from Gaut at Ænes.

The origin of the name Benkestok (Norwegian: tree-trunk seat) has not been established. According to the myth, the family's founding father saved the king of Norway from Swedish soldiers by hiding him in a wooden bench.

[edit] Coat of arms

The Benkestok family's coat of arms is divided in two. The first field is a half blue, half silver lilly. The second field goes from the right hand corner in blue and silver. The dividing line consists of a girder which is reminiscent of a tree-trunk. It is probably an allusion to the family name.

[edit] Sources

• Brandt, Wilhelmine: Slægten Benkestok (facsimile edition 1997), Damms antikvariat, Oslo ISBN 82-90438-07-9 ib. Sidetall: 332. Original ed.: Christiania 1904.
• Danmarks Adels Aarbog 1887 (Yearbook of the Danish nobility)
• Suhms Samlinger til den Danske Historie, 2. bind, II s. 99. Here is mentioned Hr. Henrich Benkestock.